Now the Green Blade Riseth

There are numbers that are significant to many of us - 3, 7, 27 - and there are numbers that are significant to only a few of us.

One of the numbers that is significant to me is 441.

That is the number of a hymn in the 1964 edition (long since superseded) of the Methodist hymnal in the United States. The hymn, "Now the Green Blade Riseth," originally appeared in The Oxford Book of Carols, and is a perfect hymn for the Easter season. As I previously noted, I actually convinced the organist (not Methodist) to play it before my wedding. Yes, I like this hymn. And, rather than reproducing the modern lyrics, I'm going to take this opportunity to reproduce the old-style lyrics, as they were printed in 1964. Getteth off my lawn.

The first verse:

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

While the first verse can be interpreted in a myriad of ways, subsequent verses clarify the interpretation. Here are the second and third verses:

In the grave they laid him, Love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.