Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
John 12:24
Words: John M. C. Crum, in the Oxford Book of Carols, 1928.
Music: Borrow William H. Borrow, in Carols Old and Carols New, by Charles L. Hutchins (Boston, Massachusetts: Parish Choir, 1916), number 10 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Crum or Borrow (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
In the grave they laid Him, Love whom we had slain,
Thinking that He’d never wake to life again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
Up He sprang at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Up from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.