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Page 1 of 21898 · PDF PAGE 13
JEPHTHAH. CHORUS. A sword, a sword, to smite our foes withal ! ELEAZAR. A help shall come from desert lands to us. CHORUS. Toward what end? For present help is much, But uttermost destruction more, for we Have no strong hope in any hand of man: God is our refuge and our tower of strength. In Him if any man abide; but if He put his faith in horsemen, or the sword, The sword he trusted shall be for an end. ELEAZAR. But evils fall like rain upon the land. CHORUS. Let us not call the hail to give us peace. ELEAZAR. Nor on the sun, lest he too eat u…
1898 · PDF PAGE 28
…ictory, to content His army with their present brief success, Lest he pass by the barrier of our suffering, And find our wrath no broken sword, and find Despair more terrible than hope. Go now. A SOLDIER. We go, my lord, less readily to sleep Than if you bade us march. No man of us But stirs a little, I warrant, in his dreams, And reaches out for sword-hilt. All hail, Jephthah! SOLDIERS. Jephthah! a leader, a deliverer. Hail! [Exeunt Soldiers and Young Men.
1898 · PDF PAGE 20
…s bring For His temple a tribute of tears. Enter Jephthah amid his Soldiers, with many young men of Israel. | JEPHTHAH. Yea, for a man’s sword should not turn again To his own bosom, and the sword of fear Smites not in vain the heart of cowardice. But who hath called me hither to what end ? ELEAZAR. For these, and for the sake of Israel. JEPHTHAH. And who are these? And who are Israel? CHORUS. Turn not thy face from us in wrath, for we Are thine own father’s children, and his loins With double fervour gat a double flower ; And we indeed were bo…
1898 · PDF PAGE 12
… shall bridle him, or turn his way? For Fate alone of gods, inflexible, And careless of men’s deeds, is firm in heaven. PROPHET. I see a sword whose hilt is to thy hand. CHORUS. But which of us shall wield the shining blade? PROPHET. I see a dove departing to the hills. CHORUS. I pray it bring an olive-branch to us. PROPHET. The god has overcome me, I am silent. CHORUS. He lies as one lies dead; none wakens him. Nor life nor death must touch him now: beware! ELEAZAR. Beware now, all ye old wise men, of this. For high things spoken and unjustly …
1898 · PDF PAGE 19
…y Arm, We not presuming in our arrogance To come with cunning, and defend ourselves ? ELEAZAR. Nay, but God smites with sharpness of our swords, CHORUS. The sword is made sharp in our hands, but the point He shall guide; We grasp the tough ash of the spear, but His hand is beside ; We drive in a cloud at the foe, but His chariots ride Before us to sunder the spears.
1898 · PDF PAGE 17
…Who high truth and faith may swear, And betray us at the end /To his robber bands. So we clasp our humble hands, Praying God to lift His sword From our bleeding state, that stands Tottering to its fall. Though we call not Jephthah back To repel the harsh attack, Nor his followers call, Hear thou, O Most High, give ear To our pitiful complaint: Under woes of war we faint. Pity, Lord of Hosts, our fear! Hear, Most High, oh, hear! ° Enter Messenger. MESSENGER. My lords, take heed now, prayer is good to save - While yet the foemen are far off ; but…
1898 · PDF PAGE 54
…shing 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,
1898 · PDF PAGE 16
… rule Where the far blue Syrian sky Stretches, where the clouds as wool Mark the white Arabian border, To become a tyrant king Where his sword came conquering. Out of chaos rises order On her wide unwearying wing, But the desolate marauder Never over us shall swing Such a sceptre as should bring Sorrow to one home of ours. Better bear the heavy hours Under God’s avenging breath, Better brave the horrid powers, Nor avoid the foreign death, Humbling all our pride before God’s most holy throne, abasing Every man’s strong soul, and facing All the h…
1898 · PDF PAGE 72
…drawn The awful glory of the dawn! ELEAZAR. Let every man depart unto his house. CHORUS. He hath made His face as a fire; His wrath as a sword; He hath smitten our soul’s desire; He is the Lord.
1898 · PDF PAGE 15
…His holy Places, and our prayers ascend Fervent, and may sunder slowly The blue darkness at the end. For we know not where to send For a sword to cleanse the land, For a sharp two-edgéd brand, All our homesteads to defend. For amid the desert sand Lives an outcast of our race, Strong, immutable, and grand,
1898 · PDF PAGE 71
…rably bright. So priest and people join to praise The secret wisdom of the Lord, Awaiting the arisen rays That smite through heaven as a sword
1898 · PDF PAGE 25
…concealments, highest of all, We swear to be true men to thee and thine. JEPHTHAH. I thank you, people. Let the younger men Gather their swords and spears, and pass before This spear I strike into the earth, that so I see how many fight for Israel. CHORUS. The young men are girded with swords, And the spears flash on high, and each shield Gleams bright like the fury of lords Through the steam of the well-foughten field, And the children of Ammon are broken, their princes and warriors yield. The captain is chosen for fight, The light of his eye …
1898 · PDF PAGE 31
…s like a spectre, and urges The horsemen in thunderous surges On columns where blood not asperges The splashing of struggling bands. The sword is like lightning in battle, The spear like the light of a star; It strikes on the shield, and the rattle Of arrows is hail from afar.
1898 · PDF PAGE 38
…PHTHAH. Why therefore did ye not recover them Then and not now? I have not sinned against thee; But thou dost me foul wrong to bring thy sword And torch of rapine in my pleasant land. Between the folk of Ammon and the folk Of Israel this day be God the judge. [Exzt Second Herald. ELEAZAR. Well spoken: but the ear that will not hear Is deafer than the adder none may charm. JEPHTHAH. I know it, and will not await the answer. But dawn shall see a solemn sacrifice, And solemn vows, and long swords glittering, And moving columns that shall shake the…
1898 · PDF PAGE 30
…noble song of triumph, such As men may go to fight withal. For freedom on her fiery wings Flies over camps and tented kings, And bears a sword avenging us, And turns her face to Israel thus. For now a captain brave and strong Shall break the fury of the thong Wherewith the sons of Ammon scourge Our country; and his war shall urge Long columns of victorious men To blackest wood and dimmest den, Wherever fugitive and slave Shall seek a refuge, find a grave; And so pursue the shattered legions
1898 · PDF PAGE 36
…ook away my land When they came out of Egypt from the river Of Ammon unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan. — Wherefore, I pray thee, sheathe thy sword, restore Peaceably these my lands, and go in peace, Lest wrath, being kindled, consume thee utterly. JEPHTHAH. Let yet another herald stand before me Fresh, and go thou, swiftest of messengers, And sleep and eat a little, and to-morrow Thou shalt have guerdon of thy faithfulness. [Ext Herald. Enter Second Herald. But now, sir, go to this rebellious king And say to him: Thus Jephthah, judge of Israel, Wit…
1898 · PDF PAGE 27
…he dawn lift his eyebrows, and the day Renew the battle? Will ye follow me Through slippery ways of blood to Ephraim To beat with sturdy swords unwearying Our foemen to their Ammon, and to grapple With red death clutching at the throat of us, With famine and with pestilence, at last To reach a barren vengeance, and perchance An hundred of your thousands to return Victors—so best God speed us—and for worst Death round our cities horrible and vast, And rape and murder mocking at our ghosts ? A SOLDIER. Better they taunt our ghosts than us for cow…
1898 · PDF PAGE 29
…ith such a lightning-fork As shall fall venomous upon the host Of these idolatrous that thus invade Our fencéd cities, these that put to sword Our helpless. Hear the cry of widowed men! And young men fatherless! And old men reft Of children! Grant us victory to avenge Their innocent shed blood, and ruined land. So, to gain time for prayer and penitence For grievous trespass of idolatry Done to th’ accurséd Baalim, and time To gather fugitives, and make them men, And straggling herdsmen for our armament, We send thee, herald, to the furious king…
1898 · PDF PAGE 22
…ody waters of a brook. _ And now ye call me to your help, forsooth! CHORUS. Let no ill memory of an ancient wrong, Most mighty, edge thy sword _ Against the prayer of this repentant song. Dire sorrow of the Lord Consumes our vital breath, and smites us down, And desecrates the crown. For we have sinned against thee, and our souls Scathe and devour as coals, And God is wroth because of thee, to break The spirit of our pride, our lips to make Reverent toward thee, as of men ashamed. And now we pray thee for our children’s sake, And thine own pity…
1898 · PDF PAGE 47
…hose long filaments of light beyond. See, the spot darkens, and a horseman spurs A flagging steed with bloody flanks, and waves A cloudy sword to heaven—I am sure He brings us eagle-wingéd victory, And tiding of no battle lost for Israel. Yes, he grows great before the sun, and stands Now in his stirrups, and shouts loud, and waves A blade triumphant. Now the weary horse Stumbles with thundering strides along the last