The central image of the poem is taken from the Book of Matthew, in which Jesus says that “the kingdom ... where his pearl lives after her earthly death, draw on the Book of Revelation.

This rings true in the poem “Go Down, Death,” in which God commands Death ... but simply “resting in the bosom of Jesus.” The next several stanzas mark a dramatic shift in tone: Johnson ...

Updike’s poem, which he wrote in 1960 for an arts ... that our own biographies and mundane days collide with eternity. If Jesus defeated death one morning in Jerusalem, then suddenly every ...

In the poem, the wild iris tells us to set aside that fear. bending a little. The resurrected Jesus also tells us that we can set aside our fear of death, that he has passed through the door ...