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The book of the dead

Boker, George H. (1823-1890)

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[Beside the spreading Nile of old]
 1. 
[I. 'Tis not my purpose to explain]
 2. 
[II. This cross between a curse and psalm]
 3. 
[III. Let him who dares usurp God's right]
 4. 
[IV. I make a pageant of my pain]
 5. 
[V. To-day my inmost soul was stirred]
 6. 
[VI. Thy grave is shut against the lies]
 7. 
[VII. If this cruel cup of love and hate]
 8. 
[VIII. Sometimes I weary of my task]
 9. 
[IX. I hear the clarions of the day]
 10. 
[X. If passion less, and reason more]
 11. 
[XI. Peter and Judas merged in one]
 12. 
[XII. While this shall stand, the wicked deeds]
 13. 
[XIII. The regicides who slew King Charles]
 14. 
[XIV. I had a vision of the night]
 15. 
[XV. The moon sails up the mottled sky]
 16. 
[XVI. When the dead Cid was laid in state]
 17. 
[XVII. If yon cold lizard, sliming o'er]
 18. 
[XVIII. False Pilate washed his guilty hands]
 19. 
[XIX. Oft when thy duties bound thee down]
 20. 
[XX. The chain that binds me to this oar]
 21. 
[XXI. For gold you did your treacherous deed]
 22. 
[XXII. I stand beside the sea once more]
 23. 
[XXIII. The noblest heart I ever knew]
 24. 
[XXIV. At times the patience of my soul]
 25. 
[XXV. With passion yet my nature quakes]
 26. 
[XXVI. I know the men of after-time]
 27. 
[XXVII. To-day should be a golden one]
 28. 
[XXVIII. Of old Amilcar called his son]
 29. 
[XXIX. Let him who in my footsteps treads]
 30. 
[XXX. The poet's word that stings and lives]
 31. 
[XXXI. If all the liars under heaven]
 32. 
[XXXII. I know not to what hearts I speak]
 33. 
[XXXIII. Faint not, strong heart, beneath thy grief]
 34. 
[XXXIV. Coarse miscreant, with the cringing back]
 35. 
[XXXV. I twine to-day a victor's crown]
 36. 
[XXXVI. Our dead to us are never dead]
 37. 
[XXXVII. The fierce, rebellious fall of rain]
 38. 
[XXXVIII. With song of birds, and hum of bees]
 39. 
[XXXIX. If I could value at its height]
 40. 
[XL. Against the words which current pass]
 41. 
[XLI. A sculptured stone to-day was laid]
 42. 
[XLII. If sorrow is love's fruit, and love]
 43. 
[XLIII. The dreary morning of my woe]
 44. 
[XLIV. If mere existence be Love's scope]
 45. 
[XLV. These wild, unquiet thoughts that rove]
 46. 
[XLVI. Blow gently, southern breezes, blow]
 47. 
[XLVII. Standing upon this grave, I view]
 48. 
[XLVIII. Before the scornful face of death]
 49. 
[XLIX. I, for my part, would rather tear]
 50. 
[L. What special baseness of our kind]
 51. 
[LI. The beef-faced brute who leads this band]
 52. 
[LII. To-day I faced my enemies]
 53. 
[LIII. I cannot pass that threshold o'er]
 54. 
[LIV. Why sorrow for the hopeless past]
 55. 
[LV. If to the soul, as to the sense]
 56. 
[LVI. Eternal God, before Thy face]
 57. 
[LVII. One counsels me to drop my scourge]
 58. 
[LVIII. If good and evil are but one]
 59. 
[LIX. Long golden days and mellow nights]
 60. 
[LX. Is grief a weakness of the mind]
 61. 
[LXI. My cries of wrath are fitful cries]
 62. 
[LXII. I sat with men; few words were said]
 63. 
[LXIII. What cuts thee from thy fellow-wretch]
 64. 
[LXIV. I watched at eve beside thy tomb]
 65. 
[LXV. Arch traitor, in thy restless bed]
 66. 
[LXVI. If all this passion run to waste]
 67. 
[LXVII. I do not draw for man alone]
 68. 
[LXVIII. If I were well assured of this]
 69. 
[LXIX. Dear Lord, to Thee I cry aloud]
 70. 
[LXX. I, wandering by this bitter shore]
 71. 
[LXXI. What man shall set his hardened brow]
 72. 
[LXXII. Through the dark path, o'er which I tread]
 73. 
[LXXIII. I fought with spectres in the night]
 74. 
[LXXIV. Were beauty nearer the divine]
 75. 
[LXXV. A service done to me is naught]
 76. 
[LXXVI. Ye men of evil, ye who dare]
 77. 
[LXXVII. In hazy gold the hill-side sleeps]
 78. 
[LXXVIII. Now thou art gone, in vain to me]
 79. 
[LXXIX. Great God, I cannot bear this thing]
 80. 
[LXXX. My soul is open to thy eye]
 81. 
[LXXXI. If this sole solace of my grief]
 82. 
[LXXXII. Not pity, but a deeper sense]
 83. 
[LXXXIII. Perhaps I make my grief too plain]
 84. 
[LXXXIV. What evidence lies round about]
 85. 
[LXXXV. The hopes, on which our spirits live]
 86. 
[LXXXVI. I meet thee, sometimes, in the deep]
 87. 
[LXXXVII. When my dead roses bloom once more]
 88. 
[LXXXVIII. When I am turned to mouldering dust]
 89. 
[LXXXIX. They tell me thou art far away]
 90. 
[XC. I stood amidst an angry throng]
 91. 
[XCI. I trust in man. Not all are base]
 92. 
[XCII. Where violets and daisies spring]
 93. 
[XCIII. I pity him who holds his grief]
 94. 
[XCIV. In robes of woe, before me stood]
 95. 
[XCV. The day arose in dismal black]
 96. 
[XCVI. Can time, that makes the memory]
 97. 
[XCVII. Let me not scorn my better self]
 98. 
[XCVIII. It seems that even rogues like these]
 99. 
[XCIX. O man of serviceable mind]
 100. 
[C. The primrose in the valley blooms]
 101. 
[CI. The yearly miracle of Spring]
 102. 
[CII. We poets hang upon the wheel]
 103. 
[CIII. Glory to God! This blesséd hour]
 104. 
[CIV. I, sighing o'er the happy past]
 105. 
[CV. If any good may come to me]
 106. 
[CVI. I know that I shall never cease]
 107. 
[CVII. With pious hands I close thy tomb]

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117

[LIII. I cannot pass that threshold o'er]

I cannot pass that threshold o'er
Without a sinking of the soul;
A spectre haunts the open door,
And round the walls low murmurs roll.
A voice seems calling from within,
That should not speak on earth again;
The voice sounds ghostly faint and thin,
But, O my soul! how strangely plain!
It cries for vengeance at my hand,
It dooms me to this task forlorn,
It drives me on as with a brand,
It sneers my weakness into scorn.
The hopeless fate of ancient Greece,
That ground resistance into dust,
Ladens that mandate, and I cease
To struggle, and am onward thrust.
118

I do my part. The place is cursed
Beyond man's prayers; the curse must fall;
A desecrated grave has burst,
And poured its darkness over all.
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