Collected Works (Vol. I)

66 JEPHTHAH Of earth, and leave thy mantle, and thy lyre, A double portion of thy spirit to render, That yet the banner may fling out on high, And yet the lyre teach freemen how to die! Master, the night is falling yet again. I hear dim tramplings of unholy forces : I see the assembly of the foully slain : The scent of murder steams: riderless horses , Gallop across the earth, and seek the inane : The sun and moon are shaken in their courses : The kings are gathered, and the vultures fall Screaming, to hold their ghastly festival. Master, the sons of Freedom are but few— Yea, but as strong as the storm-smitten sea, Their forehead consecrated with the dew, Their heart made mighty: let my voice decree, My spirit lift their standard : clear and true Bid my trump sound, ‘‘ Let all the earth be free!” With thine own strength and melody made strong, And filled with fire and light of thine own song. Only a boy’s wild songs, a boy’s desire, I bring with reverent hands. The task is ended— The twilight draws on me: the sacred fire Sleeps: I have sheathed my sword, my bow unbended : So for one hour I lay aside the lyre, And come, alone, unholpen, unbefriended, As streams get water of the sun-smit sea, Seeking my ocean and my sun in thee. Yea, with thy whirling clouds of fiery light Involve my music, gyring fuller and faster ! Yea, to my sword lend majesty and might To dominate all tumult and disaster, That even my song may pierce the iron night, Invoking dawn in thy great name, O Master ! Till to the stainless heaven of the soul Even my chariot-wheels on thunder roll. And so, most sacred soul, most reverend head, The silence of deep midnight shall be bound, And with the mighty concourse of the dead That live, that contemplate, my place be found, Even mine, throughall theseasons that areshed Like leaves upon the darkness, where the sound Of all high song through calm eternity Shall beat and boom,thine own maternal sea. For in the formless world, so swift a fire Shall burn, that fire shall not be com- prehended; So deep a music roll, that our desire Shall hear no sound;; shall beam a light so splendid That darkness shall be infinite: the lyre Fashioned of truth, strung with men’s heart-strings blended, Shall sound as silence: and all souls be still In wisdom’s high communion with will. JEPHTHAH. A TRAGEDY. ‘'O Jephthah ! judge of Israel !”—HAMLET, CHARACTERS. JEPHTHAH. ADULAH, his Daughter. JARED, A Gileadite, cousin to Jephthah. A Prophet of the Lord. ELEAZAR, Chief of the Elders of Israel. AHINOAM, an aged Priest. First Messenger. Second Messenger. First Herald. second Herald. soldiers of Jephthah. Soldiers of Israel. Chorus of Elders of Israel. Maidens of Israel. SCENE :—An Open Place before Mizpeh. the midst an Altar. TIME :— The duration of the play is from noon of the first day to dawn of the third. Ln. JEPHTHAH. Lleazar. Prophet. Chores. CHORUS. Now is our sin requited of the Lord. For, scorning Jephthah for an harlot’s son, We cast him forth from us, and said: Begone, Thou shalt not enter in with us; thy throat