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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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50

[XXIII. The noblest heart I ever knew]

The noblest heart I ever knew
Died when thine ceased to rise and fall:
My loves, indeed, are shy and few;
My love for thee was crown of all.
I loved thee for thy honest scorn
Of fraud and wrong, thy tender ruth,
That touched the lowest thing forlorn,
Thy eagle grasp on right and truth.
I never knew thy tongue to hang,
Before rich wrong, in selfish fright;
But I have heard it when it rang,
A clarion, on the side of right.
The clearness of thy mental view
Embraced all objects that it sought,
And pierced the darkest avenue
Of high and speculative thought.
51

It wisely taught the proud and rich,
It roused the poor man's humble fire,
And sometimes even struck the pitch,
To tune my false and jarring lyre.
Where'er it fell, a ray was shed,
Some truth revealed, some reason found;
Like a revolving light, it spread
The whole horizon round and round.
We children laud the hero's prize,
The outward Christian's patent worth;
Forgetting that true goodness flies
Above the plaudits of this earth.
The dreadful victory of the field
'Twixt soul and self is never known;
Nor know we of the man who kneeled,
In secret prayer, to God alone.
This struggle and this faith were thine;
By man no victor's crown was given;
But even now a light may shine
Around thy brows in highest heaven.
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