The Full Text of “Good Friday”
1Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
2That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
3To number drop by drop Thy blood's slow loss,
4And yet not weep?
5Not so those women loved
6Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
7Not so fallen Peter, weeping bitterly;
8Not so the thief was moved;
9Not so the Sun and Moon
10Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
11A horror of great darkness at broad noon—
12I, only I.
13Yet give not o'er,
14But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
15Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
16And smite a rock.
The Full Text of “Good Friday”
1Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
2That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
3To number drop by drop Thy blood's slow loss,
4And yet not weep?
5Not so those women loved
6Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
7Not so fallen Peter, weeping bitterly;
8Not so the thief was moved;
9Not so the Sun and Moon
10Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
11A horror of great darkness at broad noon—
12I, only I.
13Yet give not o'er,
14But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
15Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
16And smite a rock.
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“Good Friday” Introduction
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Christina Rossetti's "Good Friday" was published in her 1866 collection The Prince's Progress and Other Poems. Good Friday refers to a holiday that commemorates Jesus's Crucifixion. Though the poem's speaker understands the significance of this event in their faith, they struggle to connect to it on an emotional level. Unlike the biblical followers of Christ who passionately expressed their sorrow at his passing, the speaker finds themselves unable to "weep" at the thought of Christ's suffering and death. The speaker thus fears that they're an unfeeling "stone" rather than a devoted "sheep" under the guidance of the "true shepherd" (God), and they appeal to God for solace and reassurance. "Good Friday" ultimately emphasizes the deeply personal nature of faith and proposes that during moments of spiritual doubt, placing even greater trust in God might be the only answer.
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“Good Friday” Summary
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Am I a cold and emotionless stone, rather than a truly devoted follower, given that I can stand here, Christ, looking at your crucifix, and count each drop of blood you shed without crying a single tear?
The women that followed you at the time, who are still loved, grieved you with abundant passion. So did Peter who betrayed you—he wept bitterly. The thief on the cross next to you was visibly moved.
Even the Sun and Moon hid their faces in a sky without stars, when a great, terrible darkness fell over the land at midday. Only I, it seems, am incapable of feeling anything.
But don't give up on me, God: search for your lost sheep, you great leader of the flock. You, who are more powerful than Moses, turn and find me, and strike this stone.
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“Good Friday” Themes
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Faith and Feeling
The speaker of "Good Friday" grapples with a profound emotional disconnect from a key event of their faith: Christ's Crucifixion. While recognizing the significance of Good Friday (the holiday honoring the Crucifixion), the speaker wonders why they can't "weep" over Jesus's death, despite their belief in the profound meaning of his sacrifice—a worry that shows this speaker believes deep faith is reflected in deep feeling. "Good Friday" suggests that religious faith isn't just about adhering to a set of beliefs, but about feeling those beliefs: emotion and imagination are indispensable parts of a full relationship with God.
The speaker longs to be close to God. Right now, though, their faith feels like little more than an intellectual exercise, leaving them doubting their own religious conviction. Contemplating the crucifixion, the speaker pictures the scene so vividly that they can practically "number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss"—that is, count each individual droplet of Jesus's blood. But despite the speaker's best efforts, they can't bring themselves to "weep" over his death. Accordingly, the speaker wonders if they are an emotionless "stone" rather than a "sheep"—that is, an unfeeling object rather than a true follower of the faith. Religious belief, to this speaker, clearly has an emotional side as well as an intellectual one—and it's that deep feeling they just can't reach at the moment.
The speaker observes that stories and figures from the Bible confirm the importance of emotion in religious faith. Everyone the speaker can think of in the Bible has no trouble weeping over Christ's death and their own sins. From the women who wept over Jesus's crucified body to Saint Peter (who famously denied his belief in Jesus three times before the rooster crowed, a biblical moment of doubt and betrayal over which he eventually wept "bitterly") to the repentant thief crucified next to Jesus, the Bible is full of scenes of weeping. For that matter, even the "Sun and Moon [...] hid their faces" in horror when Jesus was crucified. In all of these cases, an intense emotional response marks an intense religious experience: if a person (or indeed a celestial body) really believes in God and understands Jesus's sacrifice, they can't help but cry!
In the speaker's view, then, faith is reflected in emotion—that is, the strength of one's emotional outpourings confirms and proves the strength of one's belief. Those who truly believe in the Christian story ought to be moved by it, and a lack of feeling might be a worrying sign of imperfect faith.
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Spiritual Crisis and Belief
The speaker in "Good Friday" undergoes a profound spiritual crisis when, finding themselves unmoved as they contemplate the Crucifixion, they worry that their lack of tears means they're not a true believer. In their moment of doubt, the speaker turns to their one viable source of help: God. The poem thus suggests that faith means depending on and trusting in God's help—even or especially when one feels remote from God. In other words, sometimes the solution to a crisis of faith is, well, more faith!
Good Friday—that is, the day commemorating the Crucifixion—is a major event in the Christian calendar. But it leaves the speaker feeling totally cold, making them worry that they don't believe as deeply as they feel they should. The speaker wants to prove their love of God through "weep[ing]" and match the kind of grief on show in the Bible, as by the women who cried with "exceeding grief" at Jesus's death. But the tears refuse to fall. The speaker longs to be a sheep (a true follower) in the flock of God ("the true Shepherd"), but they feel like a "stone"—that is, an emotionless object.
In this moment of fear and doubt, the speaker feels helpless. As solving their crisis of faith seems beyond their powers, they plead with God to inspire the emotion they so sorely lack. The speaker petitions God directly, asking God to "give not o'er" (that is, "don't give up on me") and to "turn and look once more [at me]." Their feeling of remoteness from God leads them to reach out for God all the more fervently.
Only God, then, can soothe the speaker's doubts about their faith! The poem suggests that a feeling of distance from God can only be bridged by deepening one's trust in God. The speaker thus answers their crisis of faith by doubling down on that very same faith. They might not feel how they want to, but deep inside they still believe that God will help them. The best proof of one's commitment to God, in this poem, is trusting in God to be there even in times of doubt or spiritual emptiness.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Good Friday”
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Line 1
Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
The title "Good Friday" clues readers into what this poem will be about: Good Friday is an important date in the Christian calendar that commemorates the death of Jesus Christ. The speaker begins the poem itself by questioning their emotional connection to their Christian faith, and more specifically their (lack of) response to the Crucifixion. This question will take up the entire first stanza.
First, in line 1, the speaker juxtaposes two contrasting metaphors:
Am I a stone, and not a sheep
These are also both allusions to the Bible, and they tell the reader how the speaker sees themselves:
- In Ezekiel 36:22-28, God promises to replace people's "heart[s] of stone" with the "heart[s] of flesh." Similarly, the speaker hopes they can overcome their own numbness.
- Meanwhile, sheep in Christianity represent Christ's faithful followers (the Bible refers to Jesus as the "true shepherd" of humanity). In this context, then, being a metaphorical "sheep" has positive connotations, implying unquestioning commitment to Jesus/God.
Both metaphors in the first line, then, have their roots in the word of God. In a way, this subtly hints at the speaker's devoutness: almost everything they say in the poem has Biblical undertones, suggesting a mind well-versed in the book. At the same time, the juxtaposition between "stone" and "sheep" demonstrates a huge gulf between how the speaker feels and how they want to feel.
The first line uses iambic tetrameter—that is, four iambs (metrical feet with unstressed-stressed pattern, da-DUM):
Am I | a stone, | and not | a sheep,
All eight words are monosyllables, which, together with the iambic rhythm, makes the line sound direct and urgent—as if, perhaps, the speaker's entire existence has been reduced to this one fundamental question.
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Lines 2-4
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy blood's slow loss,
And yet not weep? -
Lines 5-8
Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter, weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved; -
Lines 9-12
Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon—
I, only I. -
Lines 13-14
Yet give not o'er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock; -
Lines 15-16
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.
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“Good Friday” Symbols
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The Midday Darkness
In the poem's third stanza, the speaker mentions "A horror of great darkness at broad noon" that fell over the land at the moment of Christ's Crucifixion. This atmospheric darkness symbolizes the spiritual darkness of the world at the time. That is, the sky's darkness reflects humanity's intense moral failure. The image of this dark sky in the middle of the day also adds drama to the poem and emphasizes the "horror" of this event, in turn making the speaker's lack of an emotional response all the more striking.
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“Good Friday” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Allusion
"Good Friday" contains multiple allusions to the Christian Bible. The speaker struggles to emotionally connect with the story of the Crucifixion, so it makes sense that the poem hews so closely to the book that describes this event: the Bible is part of both the speaker's problem and, they hope, their solution. Biblical allusions also demonstrate that, put simply, the speaker knows their stuff. In terms of theological learning, the speaker has all the credentials of a good Christian.
Of course, the speaker fears this intellectual understanding doesn't matter all that much if they have no emotional response. The allusions to the Bible in the second stanza provide examples of people who did feel the significant impact of Jesus's death, in clear contrast to the speaker:
- For example, the speaker mentions women who "lamented" with "exceeding grief." This echoes Luke 23: 27: "there followed [Jesus] a great multitude of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented him." This allusion demonstrates how the speaker, in their view, ought to behave on Good Friday.
- The speaker also mentions "fallen Peter": a disciple of Jesus who betrayed Christ by pretending not to know him (in order to preserve his own safety). But even Peter, who effectively failed his test of faith, came to "weep[] bitterly" at Jesus's death, and went on to play a formative role in the growth of the Christian faith. The mention of bitter weeping specifically echoes Matthew 26:75: "And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, who had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly."
- The poem nods to another biblical figure with the reference to the thief on the cross next to Jesus who "was moved" too, realizing that he was in the presence of the divine. He felt Jesus's significance and changed his view accordingly—the speaker is a devoted follower, but can't properly feel the tragedy of Christ's death.
All three examples intensify the speaker's pain and isolation, amplifying their spiritual turmoil.
The poem's use of allusion can also be read in a more positive light, however. By hewing so closely to the Bible, the speaker closes the temporal gap between then and now (even if doesn't feel like it for them). This, perhaps, suggests that the quest for faith and communion with Jesus/God is a timeless human endeavor. In short, allusion creates a sense of continuity between the poem and Christian tradition. This is important because the speaker also finds biblical ideas to reassure them in their time of need:
- The speaker might worry that they are a "stone," but this metaphorical idea references a passage in the Bible in which God promises to replace "heart[s] of stone" with "heart[s] of flesh." That is, to grant cold, unfeeling people the power of emotion. There's biblical precedent, then, to suggest that God will help the speaker.
- A similar hope emerges in the speaker's reference to Jesus as the "true Shepherd of the flock," by which the speaker means the genuine leader of humanity in the eyes of God. In John 10:11, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep." Elsewhere in the Bible, he tells how a good shepherd will seek out a lost sheep even if it means temporarily leaving the rest of the flock. The speaker desires a similar spiritual rescue operation!
Everything in the poem, then, passes through a kind of filter of biblical allusion, proving the strength of the speaker's faith. Allusions provide a roadmap for the speaker's journey from profound doubt to desperate hope.
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Apostrophe
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Assonance
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Metaphor
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Repetition
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"Good Friday" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Thy
- Number
- Those women
- Exceeding
- Lamented
- Peter
- Thee
- The thief
- Broad noon
- Yet give not o'er
- True Shepherd of the flock
- Moses
- Smite
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An archaic form of "your," here used in reference to Jesus/God.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Good Friday”
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Form
"Good Friday" consists of four quatrains (four-line stanzas). The speaker addresses their words directly to Jesus/God through apostrophe, and the call for divine help ("seek thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock") makes this a devotional poem—essentially, a prayer in poem form.
"Good Friday" also features a generally iambic (da-DUM) rhythm and plenty of rhyme, but both the meter and rhyme scheme shift throughout the poem. There's thus some tension between the poem's regular stanza shape and its less predictable use of other formal elements. The simple four-line shape might suggest the speaker's desire for order and spiritual certainty, while the shifty meter and rhyme perhaps convey their inner turmoil.
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Meter
"Good Friday" mostly uses iambs: metrical units (feet) that contain two syllables arranged in an unstressed-stressed pattern (da-DUM). This creates a steady, marching rhythm throughout the poem.
The lengths of the lines themselves vary, but in each stanza, the first and fourth lines are shorter than the second and third. The first stanza, for example, starts with a line of iambic tetrameter (four iambs), then has two lines of iambic pentameter (five iambs), and a final line of iambic dimeter (two iambs):
Am I | a stone, | and not | a sheep,
That I | can stand, | O Christ, | beneath | Thy cross,
To num- | ber drop | by drop | Thy blood's | slow loss,
And yet | not weep?This varying line length manipulates the poem's pace. Lines 2 and 3 are slower and more drawn out than the rest, subtly conveying the tortuousness of Jesus's death. Line 4 then snaps back to the simple question at the poem's heart: Why don't I feel anything emotionally towards the Crucifixion?
The poem works like this throughout: expanding in the middle of each stanza and then snapping back to a shorter line. In making the second and third lines of each stanza longer than the rest, the poem spends more time with the images of people grieving Jesus's death, with the day of the Crucifixion, and with the speaker's description of God.
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Rhyme Scheme
At first glance, "Good Friday" appears to use a pretty standard rhyme scheme. The first two stanzas run ABBA CDDC. This is known as enclosed rhyme and is typical of the era in which the poem was written. It lends the poem what, at first, feels like some predictable music.
In the last two stanzas, though, the rhyme scheme switches to EFEF (which is known as alternate rhyme). This disruption hints at the speaker's own inner turmoil. They're searching for order and certainty, the sure ground of being a good Christian. Switching up the rhymes like this helps to convey their restless state.
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“Good Friday” Speaker
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"Good Friday" features a first-person speaker in the throes of a spiritual dilemma. They struggle to relate emotionally to Jesus's Crucifixion (which Good Friday commemorates), worrying that their faith is a mere intellectual exercise.
Despite their fear of not being a true "sheep," the speaker is clearly well-versed in the Bible. They allude to it in practically every line, in fact. In the second stanza, for example, they list biblical figures who were deeply moved by Jesus's death, contrasting these reactions with their own inability to "weep." These comparisons make the speaker feel isolated, as shown in the heartbreakingly simple phrase in line 12: "I, only I."
Despite their issues, the speaker still directs their thoughts and prayers towards Jesus/God, suggesting that greater commitment to their faith is the only answer to their troubles.
Christina Rossetti, though a devout Christian, often interrogated and worried about her faith, expressing similar doubts to those expressed in this poem. It's thus possible to read the speaker as representing the voice of Rossetti herself.
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“Good Friday” Setting
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The poem likely takes place on the holiday mentioned in its title: Good Friday, a day that commemorates the Crucifixion of Christ. The speaker pictures this event vividly throughout the poem. In the first stanza, for instance, the speaker talks as if they are actually present at the Crucifixion as it happens:
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy blood's slow loss,
And yet not weep?It's as though the speaker is trying to get closer to Jesus by picturing the scene in vivid detail (or, perhaps, by looking at a representation of the Crucifixion, as in a statue or painting).
The rest of the poem is also grounded in the Christian narrative, frequently alluding to the Bible. For example, the speaker conjures a sense of the "darkness" that fell over the earth when Jesus died and notes how the "Sun and Moon [...] hid their faces." This dramatic description of the Crucifixion emphasizes the "horror" of the scene and makes the speaker's stoic response seem all the more unusual. The speaker's mention of figures like "those women" who openly wept at Jesus's death and "the thief" crucified beside him further emphasizes the speaker's isolation; they remain distinctly separate from all these figures in the poem.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Good Friday”
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Literary Context
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) was one of the most important poets of the Victorian era. A popular writer of strange and fantastical verse, Rossetti contributed to a growing 19th-century vogue for fairy tales and old romances. "Good Friday" was published in Rossetti's 1866 collection, The Prince's Progress and Other Poems, set among a group of other poems addressed to God.
Devotional poetry was an important aspect of Rossetti's work right from the start. "A Better Resurrection," which appears in her first collection Goblin Market, preempts "Good Friday" in the way its speaker struggles to feel close to the "everlasting hills" mentioned in Genesis. Not all of Rossetti's devotional poetry focuses on crises of faith, however; readers may want to check out "A Birthday" for a more joyful take on the relationship between one individual and their maker.
Rossetti was also associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an artistic movement dedicated to recapturing the beauty of a (much-mythologized and romanticized) Middle Ages. Her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a founder of the group, was also an accomplished painter, poet, and wombat enthusiast. Rossetti was influenced by Elizabeth Barrett Browning as well—another popular female poet with strong ties to Italy—and some of her contemporaries saw her as the older poet's natural successor.
Historical Context
Christina Rossetti lived in a world marked both by revolutionary change and reactionary conservatism. The Victorians were innovators and empire-builders, and England reshaped itself considerably under the reign of Victoria, its first truly powerful queen since Elizabeth I. A primarily rural population made an unprecedented shift to the cities as factory work outpaced farm work, and writers from Dickens to Hardy worried about the human effects of this kind of change.
Perhaps in response to this speedy reconfiguration of the world, Victorian social culture became deeply conservative. Women were expected to adhere to a strict code of sexual morals: a woman must be chaste, pliant, and submissive, and any deviation could mean social exile. But within this repressive landscape, women writers began to flourish, asserting the complexity and meaningfulness of their own lives. Rossetti's work was part of a tide of bold and moving poetry and fiction by Victorian women; Charlotte and Emily Brontë and Elizabeth Barrett Browning are only a few of the writers whose work achieved contemporary recognition against the odds.
Additionally, the Rossetti family was swept up in the Oxford Movement, a mid-19th-century revival of Catholicism in Britain that sought to restore older Christian traditions. Many of its prominent practitioners, known as Tractarians, were poets, such as John Henry Newman and John Keble. Rossetti was deeply religious and her faith played a major role in her poetry.
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More “Good Friday” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of the poem.
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Rossetti at the Victorian Web — Visit the Victorian Web to find a treasure trove of information on Rossetti.
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A Brief Biography — Read the Poetry Foundation's short essay on Rossetti's life and work.
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A Contemporary Response — Read critic William Sharp's admiring reminiscence of Rossetti, written not long after her death.
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Portraits of Rossetti — See some images of Rossetti via London's National Portrait Gallery.
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"Why Is Good Friday Called 'Good Friday'?" — A Slate article discussing why this solemn Christian holiday has such a "good" title.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Christina Rossetti
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