50. JEPHTHAH.
CHORUS.
Not now may the hour of gladness fade,
The wheel of our fate spins bright and beaming ;
God has fashioned a sun from shade,
Mercy and joy in one tide are streaming,
Fortune is powerless, to all good seeming;
Fate is stricken, and flees afraid.
JARED.
Bring me the sackcloth and the ashes now.
ELEAZAR.
Behold! the crown of all our maiden wreath,
Adulah, white and lissome, with the flames
Of dawn forth blushing through her flower-crowned
hair.
. CHORUS.
Behold a virgin to the Lord!
Behold a maiden pale as death,
Whose glance is silver as a sword,
And flowers of Kedar fill her breath,
Whose fragrance saturates the sward,
Whose sunny perfume floating saith :
From my ineffable desire is drawn
The awful glory of the golden dawn.
Behold her bosom bare and bold
Whose billows like the ocean swing!
The painted palaces of gold,
Where shell-born maidens laugh and sing,