Israel in Egypt A Poem. By Edwin Atherstone |
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 | Israel in Egypt |  |
“Thee, Rachel, woo I now for my son's wife;
For Egypt's sometime queen. Our learned priests
In their religion soon will give thee light;
And thou wilt see how easy is the task,
A name, and some few forms, mere trifles all,
Of worship, to lay by; and others take;
Not better, haply, but not worse,—alike
In meaning, and in end: but different far
In the great end of all, as life, and death.
Trifle, as yet, I see thou deemest not
Even the mere name-change; the poor difference
'Twixt the few letters that make up the words.
'Tis but that one is nigh thee, one remote.
The nigh put off, and the remote brought near,—
The favorite of old thou wouldst discard,
And hug the new, once spurned. What nearest is,
Still greatest seems: thy rosy finger-point,
Close to thine eye, shows greater than the sun;
Blotting it wholly out: so, thine old creed,—
For aught of moment, a mere finger-point,—
Blots out all others; blots what thou might find
A sun, a heaven all glory.
For Egypt's sometime queen. Our learned priests
In their religion soon will give thee light;
And thou wilt see how easy is the task,
A name, and some few forms, mere trifles all,
Of worship, to lay by; and others take;
Not better, haply, but not worse,—alike
In meaning, and in end: but different far
In the great end of all, as life, and death.
Trifle, as yet, I see thou deemest not
Even the mere name-change; the poor difference
'Twixt the few letters that make up the words.
'Tis but that one is nigh thee, one remote.
The nigh put off, and the remote brought near,—
The favorite of old thou wouldst discard,
And hug the new, once spurned. What nearest is,
Still greatest seems: thy rosy finger-point,
Close to thine eye, shows greater than the sun;
Blotting it wholly out: so, thine old creed,—
For aught of moment, a mere finger-point,—
261
A sun, a heaven all glory.
“Absolute this,
The one condition sole,—that Egypt's gods
Thou worship,—thou; for, if their creed of old
Thy parents still would keep,—full liberty
Have they, as all of Israel: them our law
Of royal marriage touches not. The wife
Of Egypt's king, or prince, to Egypt's gods
Must bow,—else on the throne may he not sit.
For all her race beside, such liberty
As theretofore they had, such keep they still.....
This one small thing by thee conceded,—here,
Even at this hour, I hail thee as the bride,
Of Egypt's prince,—as Egypt's future queen!
The one condition sole,—that Egypt's gods
Thou worship,—thou; for, if their creed of old
Thy parents still would keep,—full liberty
Have they, as all of Israel: them our law
Of royal marriage touches not. The wife
Of Egypt's king, or prince, to Egypt's gods
Must bow,—else on the throne may he not sit.
For all her race beside, such liberty
As theretofore they had, such keep they still.....
This one small thing by thee conceded,—here,
Even at this hour, I hail thee as the bride,
Of Egypt's prince,—as Egypt's future queen!
| Israel in Egypt | |