SONGS OF THE HEBREW CHILDREN
[“In the desert a fountain is springing]
“In the desert a fountain is springing,
In the wild waste there still is a tree.”
Though the many lights dwindle to one light,
There is help if the heavens have one.”
“Change lays not her hand upon truth.”
AT BETHLEHEM
With incense and myrrh and sweet spices,
Frankincense and sacredest oil
In ivory, chased with devices
Cut quaint and in serpentine coil;
Heads bared, and held down to the bosom;
Brows massive with wisdom and bronzed;
Beards white as the white May in blossom;
And borne to the breast and beyond,—
Came the Wise of the East, bending lowly
On staffs, with their garments girt round
With girdles of hair, to the Holy
Child Christ, in their sandals. The sound
Of song and thanksgiving ascended—
Deep night! Yet some shepherds afar
Heard a wail with the worshipping blended
And they then knew the sign of the star.
“LA NOTTE”
Is it night? And sits night at your pillow?
Sits darkness about you like death?
Rolls darkness above like a billow,
As drowning men catch in their breath?
Is it night, and deep night of dark errors,
Of crosses, of pitfalls and bars?
Then lift up your face from your terrors,
For heaven alone holds the stars!
Lo! shaggy beard shepherds, the fastness—
Lorn, desolate Syrian sod;
The darkness, the midnight, the vastness—
That vast, solemn night bore a God!
The night brought us God; and the Savior
Lay down in a cradle to rest;
A sweet cherub Babe in behavior,
So that all baby-world might be blest.
IN PALESTINE
O Jebus! thou mother of prophets,
Of soldiers and heroes of song;
Let the crescent oppress thee and scoff its
Blind will, let the days do thee wrong;
But to me thou art sacred and splendid,
And to me thou art matchless and fair,
As the tawny sweet twilight, with blended
Sunlight and red stars in her hair.
Thy fair ships once came from sweet Cyprus,
And fair ships drew in from Cyrene,
With fruits and rich robes and sweet spices
For thee and thine, eminent queen;
And camels came in with the traces
Of white desert dust in their hair
As they kneel'd in the loud market places,
And Arabs with lances were there.
'Tis past, and the Bedouin pillows
His head where thy battlements fall,
And thy temples flash gold to the billows,
Never more over turreted wall.
'Tis past, and the green velvet mosses
Have grown by the sea, and now sore
Does the far billow mourn for his losses
Of lifted white ships to the shore.
Let the crescent uprise, let it flash on
Thy dust in the garden of death,
Thy chastened and passionless passion
Sunk down to the sound of a breath;
Yet you lived like a king on a throne and
You died like a queen of the south;
For you lifted the cup with your own hand
To your proud and your passionate mouth;
Like a splendid swift serpent surrounded
With fire and sword, in your side
You struck your hot fangs and confounded
Your foes; you struck deep, and so—died.
BEYOND JORDAN
And they came to Him, mothers of Judah,
Dark eyed and in splendor of hair,
Bearing down over shoulders of beauty,
And bosoms half hidden, half bare;
And they brought Him their babes and besought Him
Half kneeling, with suppliant air,
To bless the brown cherubs they brought Him,
With holy hands laid in their hair.
Then reaching His hands He said, lowly,
“Of such is My Kingdom”; and then
Took the brown little babes in the holy
White hands of the Savior of men;
Held them close to His heart and caress'd them,
Put His face down to theirs as in prayer,
Put their hands to His neck, and so bless'd them
With baby hands hid in His hair.
FAITH
There were whimsical turns of the waters,
There were rhythmical talks of the sea,—
There were gather'd the darkest eyed daughters
Of men, by the deep Galilee.
A blowing full sail, and a parting
From multitudes, living in Him,
A trembling of lips, and tears starting
From eyes that look'd downward and dim.
A mantle of night and a marching
Of storms, and a sounding of seas,
Of furrows of foam and of arching
Black billows; a bending of knees;
The rising of Christ—an entreating—
Hands reach'd to the seas as He saith,
“Have Faith!” And all seas are repeating,
“Have Faith! Have Faith! Have Faith!”
HOPE
What song is well sung not of sorrow?
What triumph well won without pain?
What virtue shall be, and not borrow
Bright luster from many a stain?
What birth has there been without travail?
What battle well won without blood?
What good shall earth see without evil
Ingarner'd as chaff with the good?
Lo! the cross set in rocks by the Roman,
And nourish'd by blood of the Lamb,
And water'd by tears of the woman,
Has flourish'd, has spread like a palm;
Has spread in the frosts, and far regions
Of snows in the North, and South sands,
Where never the tramp of his legions
Was heard, or reach'd forth his red hands.
Be thankful; the price and the payment,
The birth, the privations and scorn,
The cross, and the parting of raiment,
Are finish'd. The star brought us morn.
Look starward; stand far and unearthy,
Free soul'd as a banner unfurl'd.
Be worthy, O brother, be worthy!
For a God was the price of the world.
CHARITY
Her hands were clasped downward and doubled,
Her head was held down and depress'd,
Her bosom, like white billows troubled,
Fell fitful and rose in unrest;
Her robes were all dust and disorder'd
Her glory of hair, and her brow,
Her face, that had lifted and lorded,
Fell pallid and passionless now.
She heard not accusers that brought her
In mockery hurried to Him,
Nor heeded, nor said, nor besought her
With eyes lifted doubtful and dim.
All crush'd and stone-cast in behavior,
She stood as a marble would stand,
Then the Savior bent down, and the Savior
In silence wrote on in the sand.
What wrote He? How fondly one lingers
And questions, what holy command
Fell down from the beautiful fingers
Of Jesus, like gems in the sand.
O better the Scian uncherish'd
Had died ere a note or device
Of battle was fashion'd, than perish'd
This only line written by Christ.
He arose and look'd on the daughter
Of Eve, like a delicate flower,
And he heard the revilers that brought her;
Men stormy, and strong as a tower;
And He said, “She has sinn'd; let the blameless
Come forward and cast the first stone!”
But they, they fled shamed and yet shameless;
And she, she stood white and alone.
Who now shall accuse and arraign us?
What man shall condemn and disown?
Since Christ has said only the stainless
Shall cast at his fellows a stone.
For what man can bare us his bosom,
And touch with his forefinger there,
And say, 'Tis as snow, as a blossom?
Beware of the stainless, beware!
O woman, born first to believe us;
Yea, also born first to forget;
Born first to betray and deceive us;
Yet first to repent and regret!
O first then in all that is human,
Yea! first where the Nazarene trod,
O woman! O beautiful woman!
Be then first in the kingdom of God!
A SONG FOR PEACE
I
As a tale that is told, as a vision,
Forgive and forget; for I say
That the true shall endure the derision
Of the false till the full of the day;
II
Ay, forgive as you would be forgiven;
Ay, forget, lest the ill you have done
Be remember'd against you in heaven
And all the days under the sun.
III
For who shall have bread without labor?
And who shall have rest without price?
And who shall hold war with his neighbor
With promise of peace with the Christ?
IV
The years may lay hand on fair heaven;
May place and displace the red stars;
May stain them, as blood stains are driven
At sunset in beautiful bars;
V
May shroud them in black till they fret us
As clouds with their showers of tears;
May grind us to dust and forget us,
May the years, O, the pitiless years!
VI
But the precepts of Christ are beyond them;
The truths by the Nazarene taught,
With the tramp of the ages upon them,
They endure as though ages were naught;
VII
The deserts may drink up the fountains,
The forests give place to the plain,
The main may give place to the mountains,
The mountains return to the main;
VIII
Mutations of worlds and mutations
Of suns may take place, but the reign
Of Time, and the toils and vexations
Bequeath them, no, never a stain.
IX
Go forth to the fields as one sowing,
Sing songs and be glad as you go,
There are seeds that take root without showing,
And bear some fruit whether or no.
X
And the sun shall shine sooner or later,
Though the midnight breaks ground on the morn,
Then appeal you to Christ, the Creator,
And to gray bearded Time, His first born.
