As Christmas-Eve has suggested the subject of the Christian Faith,
Easter-Day gives occasion to a discussion concerning the Christian
Life—the life of those who are “risen with Christ.” The poem is in
substance a conversation or discussion between two persons, one of whom
(a thorough Christian) finds it very hard, while the other (who takes a
much lower and more common-place view of spiritual things) thinks it
quite easy, to be a Christian. It is not, however, in the form of a
conversation. As usual in Browning’s work, one speaks, stating his own
views and quoting the other’s, which are therefore distinguished from
his own (except when he quotes, as he sometimes does, from himself) by
quotation marks. The argument is too abstruse to be followed out in all
its ramifications; but enough of it can be given to render quite
intelligible the extracts from it which we find it possible to give. The
opening sentence will give the theme:—