26.18

1 Peter 1:34–35—All Flesh Is Grass

Christina Rossetti (1830–94) was an English poet who is best remembered today for the narrative poem “Goblin Market” and for the poems “All Flesh Is Grass” and “In the Bleak Midwinter,” both of which are often set to music and performed as sacred songs.

“All Flesh Is Grass” was inspired by 1 Peter 1:24–25, which in turn was a citation from Isaiah 40:6–8. It expresses a central theme of 1 Peter, that of finding one’s true home in a realm beyond earth and death.

“All Flesh is Grass”

So brief a life, and then an endless life

Or endless death;

So brief a life, then endless peace or strife:

Whoso considereth

How man but like a flower

Or shoot of grass

Blooms an hour,

Well may sigh “Alas!”

1 Peter 1:24–25:

“All flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

Isaiah 40:6–8:

A voice says, “Cry out.”

And I said, “What shall I cry?”

All people are like grass,

their constancy is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers and the flower fades,

when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.

surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever.