‘The Easter Flower’ is a short poem by Claude McKay that provides a unique perspective on the typically Christian/Catholic-centered holiday. One that examines the differences between a speaker who approaches the tradition without much context or reliability towards the religious practices and theology that surrounds it.
The poem appears to also echo McKay’s own eventual movement from secularism to conversion, which occurred later in the poet’s life. Although the poem isn’t exceptionally critical of more traditional interpretations of Easter, it does earnestly present the speaker’s perception of the flower as rooted in reverence of the sublime within nature. Its juxtaposition of the speaker’s pagan worship and that of Christian/Catholic allusions creates a compelling image of spirituality.
The Easter Flower Claude McKayFar from this foreign Easter damp and chilly My soul steals to a pear-shaped plot of ground,Where gleamed the lilac-tinted Easter lily Soft-scented in the air for yards around;Alone, without a hint of guardian leaf! Just like a fragile bell of silver rime,It burst the tomb for freedom sweet and brief In the young pregnant year at Eastertime;And many thought it was a sacred sign, And some called it the resurrection flower;And I, a pagan, worshiped at its shrine, Yielding my heart unto its perfumed power.
Summary
‘The Easter Flower’ by Claude McKay highlights the differences between the speaker’s personal spirituality and the Christian theology surrounding Easter through their reverence of a small but beautiful flower.
‘The Easter Flower’ is a short poem that centers on the speaker’s admiration of a lilac-colored Easter lily. The first stanza underscores the gulf that exists between the speaker’s understanding of the religious tradition surrounding the holiday itself. Instead, they focus all their attention on a small patch of ground from which a flower grows, the beautiful smell drawing them towards it.
The speaker then heavily alludes to the story of Christ’s resurrection, which at first appears to contradict their foreignness to Easter. But then a group of Christians appear beside the speaker and start to revere the same flower as a sign of Christ’s resurrection as well. The speaker, however, worships in much more pagan terms and values the flower simply as a sublime piece of nature.
Structure and Form
‘The Easter Flower’ is comprised of three quatrains with a rhyme scheme of ‘ABAB CDCD EFEF.’ The meter of the poem most closely resembles iambic pentameter, with a few of the lines including an eleventh unstressed syllable. Both its structure and subject matter also indicate it is an example of heroic stanzas of quatrains.
Literary Devices
‘The Easter Flower’ uses a large variety of imagery to build the scene of McKay’s poem. There are examples of tactile imagery: “damp and chilly” (1); olfactory imagery: “Soft-scented in the air for yards around” (4); and visual imagery: “a pear-shaped plot of ground” (2), “Where gleamed the lilac-tinted Easter lily” (3).
The poet also uses figurative language in the form of metaphor: “It burst the tomb for freedom sweet and brief” (7); and simile “Just like a fragile bell of silver rime” (6). As well as personification: “My soul steals” (2) “In the young pregnant year” (8).
Detailed Analysis
Stanza One
Far from this foreign Easter damp and chilly
My soul steals to a pear-shaped plot of ground,
Where gleamed the lilac-tinted Easter lily
Soft-scented in the air for yards around;
The first stanza of ‘The Easter Flower’ finds the speaker seemingly rejecting the traditionally religious sentiments associated with Easter. “Far from this foreign Easter” (1), the speaker begins. A statement that implies their literal/figurative distance from the festivities, as well as their cultural unfamiliarity with the holiday.
Through personification — “My soul steals” (2) — the speaker reveals what their focus has been transfixed by: a flower. A “lilac-tinted Easter lily” (3), to be precise, a color that symbolizes spirituality, a hint at the tension later developed between the speaker’s pagan-esque sentiments and the Christian/Catholic theology that surrounds Easter.
Stanza Two
Alone, without a hint of guardian leaf!
Just like a fragile bell of silver rime,
It burst the tomb for freedom sweet and brief
In the young pregnant year at Eastertime;
Stanza two of ‘The Easter Flower’ finds the speaker describing the flower with sacred reverence. In some ways, the diction used and characteristics bestowed on it (as well as the poem’s title) allude to qualities shared also by Christ, who is often depicted as a lamb around Easter. The speaker emphasizes the flower’s vulnerability — “without a hint of guardian leaf!” (5) — and calls it “fragile” (6).
But the most explicit allusion to the theology of Easter comes in the stanza’s final two lines. McKay uses a metaphor to compare the ground the flower has burst from to a tomb, which serves as an allusion to the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday.
Stanza Three
And many thought it was a sacred sign,
And some called it the resurrection flower;
And I, a pagan, worshiped at its shrine,
Yielding my heart unto its perfumed power.
In the final stanza of ‘The Easter Flower,‘ the speaker describes the contrasting perceptions of the flower between themselves — “a pagan” (11) — and the Christians/Catholics celebrating Easter. To the latter, the lilac is a “sacred sign” (9), with some referring to it as a “resurrection flower” (10). What’s ironic is that although the speaker’s own descriptions from the last stanza reveal that such interpretations are rather applicable.
Yet where they differ is that the speaker perceives the flower as worthy of worship simply because it is a flower, finding something sacred in its tender resilience and fragrant beauty. It’s a powerful image that highlights both the differences and similarities between two seemingly antithetical belief systems by illustrating the inherent values they share, such as a reverence for the sublime and a sanctity for the meek.
FAQs
The theme of the poem appears to center on the speaker’s somewhat contrasting and somewhat similar perception of the flower with Christians/Catholics celebrating Easter. They both revere the flower but for different reasons: the speaker doesn’t love and revere the flower because it is a symbol of Christ, but rather because it is an elegant manifestation of nature’s sublime beauty. At its core, the poem appears to be a defense of personal belief and that our varying interpretations of life don’t necessarily need to be antithetical to one another.
At first, the flower’s allusions to Christ might indicate that’s what it symbolizes. To the religious folk who observe the flower alongside the speaker, that’s exactly what it is. And while the speaker passes no judgment on these interpretations, it’s made evident they don’t share them. To the speaker, the Easter flower is beautiful and sublime because it exists as it is. When they call themselves pagan, they are emphasizing their worship of nature for nature’s sake alone, not out of some perceived connection between deity and theology.
What is interesting about McKay is that throughout his life, he was secular in his writings. But as he got older, he eventually converted to Christianity. It’s clear that the poem doesn’t seek to lambast and criticize Eastertime theology. Rather, the poem’s purpose seems to advocate for the individual deriving their own meaning from nature.
The image might be slightly confusing without the proper definition. Rime refers to a frost that can form on objects because of rapid freezing. As a result, this adds another layer to the speaker’s concern over the flower’s survival and their awe that it is still thriving. It can also be viewed as symbolic imagery that evokes the image of a halo.
Similar Poems
If you enjoyed this poem, be sure to check out a few more Claude McKay poems:
- ‘After The Winter’ – this poem provides beautiful imagery of winter and summer as a means of describing a romantic dream.
- ‘If We Must Die’ – this poem expresses a powerful call to action against violent racism.
- ‘Summer Morn in New Hampshire’ – this poem juxtaposes a gorgeous morning with the speaker’s lovelorn mood.
