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Page 1 of 11898 · PDF PAGE 61
JEPHTHAH. 57 SEMICHORUS II. With hearts infused of fire, Eyes clear with many waters, With lips to air that quire, We, earth’s desirous daughters, Lift up the song of triumph, sound the lutes of our desire! Elohim ! SEMICHORUS I. With branches strewn before us, And roses flung In all the ways, we chorus With throat and tongue The glory of our warrior sires whose victor swords restore us Jephthah! SEMICHORUS II. With angels vast and calm That keep his way, With streams of holy balm, The prayers of them that pray, We go to bring him home and rais…
1898 · PDF PAGE 60
…EMICHORUS OF MAIDENS I. The conqueror rides at last To home, to love; The victory is past, The white-wing dove Sails through the crystal air of eve with a pzan deep and vast. Jephthah! SEMICHORUS OF MAIDENS II. Forth, maidens, with your hands White with new lilies ! Forth, maidens, in bright bands, Virgins whose one sweet will is To sing the victory of our God in all sky-girdled lands! Elohim! SEMICHORUS I. With dancing feet, and noise Of timbrels smitten, With tears and tender joys, With songs unwritten, With music many-mouthed, with robes in …
1898 · PDF PAGE 43
…on the mountains pour. The limit of the snows is bright ; As spears that glitter shine the hills ; The foaming forehead of the light All air with cloudy fragrance fills ; And, born of desolation blind, The young sweet summer burns behind. The Altar of the Lord is set With salt and fire and fervid wine, And toward the east the light is let For shadow for the holiest shrine : One moment hangs the fire of dawn Until the sacrament be sworn. Behold, the priest, our captain, takes The sacred robes, the crown of gold, The light of other sunlight break…
1898 · PDF PAGE 55
…et that flit upon the windy way Twin fawns, the daughters of the rosy day. Behold, the arms of her desire Wave, weave, and wander in the air, Vines life-endued by subtle fire So quick and comely, curving bare ; The white diaphanous attire Floats like a spirit pale and fair ; The dance is woven of the breeze, the tune Is like the ocean silvered by the moon. Behold the maidens following, And every one is like a flower, Or like an ewe lamb of the king That comes from water at the hour Of even. See, the dancers swing Their censers ; see, their tres…
1898 · PDF PAGE 56
52 JEPHTHAH. Descending flames, and perfumes teem divine, And all the air grows one pale fume of wine. Their songs, their purity, their peace, Glide slowly in the arms of God; His lips assume their sanctities, His eyes perceive the period Of woven webs of lutes at ease, e And measures by pure maidens trod, Till, like the smoke of mountains risen at dawn, The cloud-veils of the Ain are withdrawn. | Pure spirits rise to heaven, the bride. Pure bodies are as lamps below. The shining essence, glorified With fire more cold than fresh-fallen snow, An…
1898 · PDF PAGE 68
…nd dew, Skies and seas and mountains blue, On the spring that wot not of Fruit and falling leaves and love ; Never dew-dashed foreheads fair Shall salute the idle air; Never feet shall wander deep | Where the fronds of fern, asleep, Kiss her rosy feet that pass On the spangled summer grass, Half awake, and drowse again ; Never more our feet shall stain Purple with the joyous grape, Whence there rose a fairy shape In the fume and must and juice,
1898 · PDF PAGE 30
…hy host from off the earth. Say thus; Ride for thy life, and bring me speedy word. [Exit Herald. CHORUS. Not wingéd forms, nor powers of air, Nor sundered spirits pale and fair, Nor glittering sides and scales, did bring The knowledge of this happy thing That is befallen us unaware. In likeness to the lips that sing Ring out your frosty peal, and smite Loud fingers on the harp, and touch Lutes, and clear psalteries musical, And all stringed instruments, to indite A noble song of triumph, such As men may go to fight withal. For freedom on her fi…
1898 · PDF PAGE 14
…nd the sea and the yellow sand And the face of earth is dark with love Of the lords of hell and the spirits above That move in the foggy air of night, And the spirit of God, most like a dove, Hovers, and lingers, and wings his flight, Spurned and rejected and lost to sight; But we desire him, a holy bird, And we turn eyes to the hollow hills ; For God is strong, and His iron word Mocks at the gods of the woods and rills. For .our God is as a fire That consumeth every one That is underneath the sun, And our uttermost desire Must abase, with rent…
1898 · PDF PAGE 32
… contention of chords Rolls back from the heart of the war. | But Victory lights on the banner Of Israel like to a bird; It flaps in the air, and Hosanna! Flings up to the sky for a word! Long streams of light horsemen are flashing Through fields where the tempest was lashing, Through the pools of the battle-blood splashing, Long swords to the rout of the herd. For fighters slip down on the dying, And flying folk stumble on dead, And the sound of the pitiless crying Of slaughter is heavy and red, The sound of the lust of the slayer As fierce as…
1898 · PDF PAGE 58
…ss, Purple, and horrible, to blister me With infamous tearing at my throat. O Hell! Vomit thy monsters forth in myriads To putrefy this fair green earth with blood, But make not me the devilish minister Of such a deed as this! No respite ?—-Must? Irrevocable? I dare not call on God. Thou, thou wilt serve me if I do this thing? Oh, if this be a snare thou settest now, Who hast once already mocked our pact, I swear By God, I cast thee off. Leviathan! Accept the bargain. And I seal it—thus. [Writing in the air
1898 · PDF PAGE 18
…nd the horsemen, Dashing, destroyed them as the wind that sweeps Sere leaves before its fury: then the city With arrows darkened all the air; and luck Smote down some few pursuing ; but their captain, Riding his horse against the gate, drove in His spear, and cried to them that followed him: Who plucks my spear out shall be chief of all That ply the short spear: and who breaks the gate Shall lead my horsemen into Mizpeh: then, Rushing, their spearmen battered in the gate And overpowered the youths and agéd men, That put up trembling spears, and…
1898 · PDF PAGE 23
JEPHTHAH. And blossom ; as when two-and-thirty men, The sons of Jair, on milk-white asses rode, And judged us righteously, and each abode Safe in the shadow of his vine ; as when The peace of Joshua lay upon the land, And God turned not away His piteous eyes, Nor smote us with the fury of His hand, Nor clouded over His mysterious skies, And storm and wind had no more might at all, And death and pestilence forgotten were, And angels came to holy men that call, And gracious spirits thronged the happy air; When God was very gracious to all folk, A…