Collected Works (Vol. I)

JEPHTHAH 71 lale spouses whom his heart despised, but thou Wast of a fairer face and brighter eyes, And limbs more amorous assuaged thy sire ; And fuller blood of his is tingling thus Now in thy veins indignant at our sin. But thou art strong and we are weak indeed, Nor can we bear the burden, nor sustain The fury of the Children of the East That ride against us, and bright victory Is thronéd in their banners, while on ours Perches the hideous nightbird of defeat. Mourn, mourn and cry ; bow down unto the dust QO israel, and O Gilead, for your son Comes with unpitying eyes and lips com- pressed To watch the desecration of thy shrine, Jehovah, and the ruin of our hearth. JEPHTHAH. Iam your outcast brother. At my birth My father did not smile, nor she who bore These limbs dishonourable did not smile, Nor did my kisses soothe a mother’s woe, Because my thews grown strong were iin- potent To reign or be a captain any more, Though I might serve the children who had grown Less godlike from his loins who made me vod, So when the day was ripe, my brethren turned And gnashed upon me, mocking, with their teeth : ; Thou art the son of a strange woman, thou ! Begone from honest folk !—and I in wrath Smote once or twice with naked hand, and slew . Two gibing cowards, and went forth an outcast, And gathered faithful servitors, and ruled Mightiest in the desert, and was lord Of all the marches where my spear might throw Its ominous shadow between night and noon. Yet always I considered my revenge, And purposed, seeking out those kin of mine, To make them as those kings that Gideon slew Hard by the bloody 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 Keverent toward thee, as of men ashamed. And now we pray thee for our children’s sake, and thine own pity’s sake, to come untamed, And furiously to ride against our foes, To be our leader, till one sanguine rose Spread from thy standard awful leaves of blood, And thy swords pour their long insatiate flood Through ranks of many dead! then, then to close The wounds of all the land, and bid it bud 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. Then storm and wind had no more might at all, And death and pestilence forgotten were ; Then angels came to holy men that call, And gracious spirits thronged the happy air; Then God was very gracious to all folk ; He lifted from us the Philistian yoke, And all the iron power of Edom broke :—