Unless stated otherwise, my source for hymn texts and tunes is The Lutheran Service Book.

Friday, May 15, 2026

"Christ the Lord Is Risen Today"

I recently watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 17 April.  The hymn was "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today," and I noticed some significance in the rhyme scheme.

The third verse begins with the lines "Vain the stone, the watch, the seal; / Christ hath burst the gates of hell."  "Seal" and "hell" exhibit a slant rhyme, unlike the perfect rhymes of all of the preceding couplets.  In a way, this lack of coherence illustrates the vanity, and the break from the established pattern matches the gates' being "burst."