A story regarding this hymn: we were at someone’s house for Christmas 2004 and we were having a jam session with their son. During said session, we discovered that you can actually sing “Jingle Bells” to the tune used for this hymn (“Noel Nouvelet”, a 15th century French carol). We had a parishioner who HATED this particular hymn so we were only allowed to sing it ONCE at Easter and the three of us couldn’t look at each other as we sang it because we knew we’d laugh.

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.
(HT: NetHymnal)

The hymn sung by choristers at Ely Cathedral: