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Page 1 of 21898 · PDF PAGE 60
…, with song and gladness of full hearts. SEMICHORUS 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 unwritte…
1898 · PDF PAGE 42
… I am free. Nay, I, This body, dead, must lie Till Thou come home again, O soaring Soul. The gates supernal roll ! Flash through them, O white-winged, white-blossom ghost ! Ah, God! for I am lost. - [Jephthah remains motionless, [Morning dawns. Enter Jared, Soldters, Prophet. SOLDIERS. . Hail, captain! We are ready now for death, Or victory, if shining wings are fain To hover over dauntless hearts. Behold Our ready bands to follow to the fray. JEPHTHAH. Welcome! hail ye this happy dawn as one
1898 · PDF PAGE 56
…n, the bride. Pure bodies are as lamps below. The shining essence, glorified With fire more cold than fresh-fallen snow, And influences, white and wide, - Descend, re-gather, kindle, grow, Till from one virgin bosom flows a river Of white devotion adamant for ever. Enter Adulah and Chorus of Matdens. ADULAH. Fathers of Israel, we are come to you With many maidens praising God, for this, The victory of my father. Happy girls! Whose brothers struck to-day for Israel, Whose fathers smote the heathen ; happiest, Ye blushing flowers, beyond your you…
1898 · PDF PAGE 73
…-day and to-morrow ; the winter, the spring; He bringeth us joy out of sorrow ; Jehovah is King. [Exeunt. Jephthah ts left standing with white set face. Presently tears come into his eves, and he advances, and kneels at the altar. THE END.
1898 · PDF PAGE 64
…d break into watling. The old men gradually understand, and fill the atr with incoherent lamentations. BehindJephthah the soldiers, with white lips, have assumed their military formation, and stand at atten- tion by a visible effort of self-control.
1898 · PDF PAGE 70
… dawn. [Exeunt Adulah and Maidens. CHORUS. Toward the mountains and the night The fairest of all Israel go, Toward the hollows weird and white, Toward the sorrow of the snow ; To desolation black and blind They move, and leave us death behind. The Lord is great, the Lord is wise Within His temple to foresee
1898 · PDF PAGE 63
… God. JEPHTHAH. How is ’t the cattle have been driven home? I trusted we had found a tender lamb, A lamb of the first year, unblemished, white, To greet me, that we do meet sacrifice, Fulfilling thus my vow, and all our duty. [A nose of timbrels and singing. Surely some merriment—our news hath reached. Glad news and welcome: God is very good. Enter Adulah, running, followed by singing Maidens.
1898 · PDF PAGE 69
…the brown mate's bough ; Listen to the breeze that blows Over cape and valley now At the silence of the noon, Or the slumber-hour Of the white delicious moon Like a lotus-flower. Let us sadly, slowly, go To the silence of the snow. ADULAH [embraang Jephthah}. Whose crystal fastnesses shall echo back F
1898 · PDF PAGE 67
…ark Of the world of fire, that swings Gates of adamant below Lofty minarets of snow. Thence the towering flames arise, Where the flashes white and wise Find their mortal foe. Let us thither, caring not Anything, or any more, Since the sorrow of our lot Craves to pass the abysmal door ; Never more for us shall twine Rosy fingers on the vine ; * Never maiden lips that cull Myriad blossoms beautiful ;
1898 · PDF PAGE 54
…tricken, 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 Whos…
1898 · PDF PAGE 16
…st his eye Turn back covetous to try For our palaces, to 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 thron…
1898 · PDF PAGE 71
… And we, who were as idols crowned, Lie dust upon the empty ground. She goes, our sorrow’s sacrifice, Our lamb, our firstling, frail and white, With large sweet love-illumined eyes Into the night, into the night. The throne of night shall be withdrawn ; So moveth she toward the dawn. All peoples and all kings that move By love and sacrifice inspired In light and holiness and love, And seek some end of God desired, Pass, though they seem to sink in night, To dawns more perdurably bright. So priest and people join to praise The secret wisdom of t…
1898 · PDF PAGE 50
… soul, And my wife’s eyes were welcome more desired Than chains of roses, and the song of children, And swinging palm branches, and milk-white—elders. CHORUS. Fie on thy railing! But his wife is sick, And cannot leave the borders of her house.
1898 · PDF PAGE 55
…old, 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 tresses shower 53
1898 · PDF PAGE 53
…llow fiits. JARED [aszde}. So, in his victory is our disgrace. CHORUS. Fair as the dawn is the maiden wise, Pale as the poppies by still white water, Sunlight burns in her pure deep eyes, Love lights the tresses of Jephthah’s daughter ; Kissing rays of the moon have caught her, Rays of the moon that sleeps and sighs. JARED [aszde]. In our disgrace, behold! Our vengeance strikes. I am inspired with so profound a hate— He shall not triumph : in the very hour When his o’ermastering forehead tops the sky I strike him to the earth. I need not move. …
1898 · PDF PAGE 49
… thou most blessed of the Lord for ever! But what shall he that hath delivered us Have for his guerdon when he comes in triumph ? A milk-white ass shall bear him through the city, And wreaths of roses be instead of dust, And dancing girls, and feet of maidens most, Shall strike a measure of delight, and boys With bright unsullied curls shall minister Before him all the days of life God grants, And all his platters shall be made of gold, And jewels beyond price shall stud them all. What sayest thou, O wisest of our race, Ahinoam, the aged priest…
1898 · PDF PAGE 10
6 JEPHTHAH. Threatens the white flower of our homes: our wives, Daughters, and sons are as a prey to them, And where the children of the Ammonites Throng not swift hoofs for murder, Jephthah’s men Blaspheme our sanctuaries inviolate, And rob us of our dearest. Woe on woe, The overwhelming summit of a wave Too black, too concentrate, too impious, And culminating in a double death, Hangs imminent to crush the slender sides And battered bulwarks of our state. O thou Whose hoary locks and sightless eyes compel Our pity and our reverence, and whose …
1898 · PDF PAGE 29
…: Thus saith Jephthah : Why hast thou come with bloody hands against us? Our holy God, that bound the iron sea With pale frail limits of white sand, and said : Thus far, and not one billowy step beyond ! Saith unto thee in like commandment: Thou Who hast destroyed my people from the land So far, shalt not encroach upon their places One furlong more, lest quickly I destroy
1898 · PDF PAGE 58
…O horrible distortion of all truth That I must serve thee still. Thy word’s a lie, That if I keep my silence, I do good To her, the milk-white virgin sacrifice, And only smite the bloody father down! A lie, Isay! A lie! Yet—dare I speak, Those eyes upon me, torturing my soul And threatening revenge? His fingers gross, 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 resp…
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…