‘This Bread I Break’

A Meditation 

for Holy Thursday

April 9, 2020

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and Easter Sunday

This Bread I Break

This bread I break was once the oat,
This wine upon a foreign tree
Plunged in its fruit;
Man in the day or wine at night
Laid the crops low, broke the grape's joy.

Once in this time wine the summer blood
Knocked in the flesh that decked the vine,
Once in this bread
The oat was merry in the wind;
Man broke the sun, pulled the wind down.

This flesh you break, this blood you let
Make desolation in the vein,
Were oat and grape
Born of the sensual root and sap;
My wine you drink, my bread you snap.

Dylan Thomas

The poem ‘This Bread I Break’ describes in earthy metaphor the significance of the bread and wine in Holy Communion. 

It echoes the words of Jesus:  “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” 

The poet paints a vivid picture of oat being laid low, grape being plunged as the harvester captures the wind and breaks the sun deep in the oat and grapes. Just as the production of bread and wine involves the death and rebirth of a living organism through harvesting, we are granted new life in Christ through his death and resurrection.

We are born of the sensual root and sap – as we drink the wine and snap the bread. 

This Bread I Break

This bread I break was once the oat,
This wine upon a foreign tree
Plunged in its fruit;
Man in the day or wine at night
Laid the crops low, broke the grape's joy.

Once in this time wine the summer blood
Knocked in the flesh that decked the vine,
Once in this bread
The oat was merry in the wind;
Man broke the sun, pulled the wind down.

This flesh you break, this blood you let
Make desolation in the vein,
Were oat and grape
Born of the sensual root and sap;
My wine you drink, my bread you snap.

Amen