FOLLOW A WORD THROUGH THE COLLECTION
Search the corpus.
Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.
54 matching pages
Page 1 of 31899 · PDF PAGE 47
…mous 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 Who lies with all his power encamped somewh…
1899 · PDF PAGE 36
14 JEPHTHAH. For in the South a cloud of many men, And desert horsemen fiery as the sun, Swarmed on the plains, a crescent from the hills That girdle Mahanaim: and behold! Our men were hemmed before the city gates, The elders having fortified them : so They fled about the city, and 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 t…
1899 · PDF PAGE 43
…ctory, we swear, And by the strong foundations, and the Kingdom, Flower of all kingdoms, and by the holy Crown Concealed with all 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 fie…
1899 · PDF PAGE 53
…God It might be so a little ere I die! CHORUS OF ELDERS. This doubtful word his fuming lips gave forth: A maiden shall be slain for many men. This only of his fury seemed obscure. JEPHTHAH. A maiden shall be slain for many men. Surely, O people, and men of Israel, The prophecy is happy to the end. For see yon moon that creeps inviolate Against the corner of the mountains so, Slowly and gracefully to lighten us. So, ere three nights be gone, the course of heaven Shall be most monstrously o’erwhelmed for us Ere sundown, as for Joshua, and the moo…
1899 · PDF PAGE 67
JEPHTHAH. 45 Into the bowels of the earth, and close Upon those grisly men of war, whose life Groans from the prison that shall crush it out. CHORUS OF ELDERS. Be 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…
1899 · PDF PAGE 208
186 MYSTERIES: PERDURABO. XILE from humankind! The snow’s fresh flakes Are warmer than men’s hearts. My mind is wrought Into dark shapes of solitary thought That loves and sympathizes, but awakes No answering love or pity. What a pang Hath this strange solitude to aggravate The self-abasement and the blows of Fate!’ No snake of hell hath so severe a fang! I am not lower than all men—I feel Too keenly. Yet my place is not above, Though I have this—unalterable Love In every fibre. I am crucified Apart on a lone burning crag of steel, Tortured, ca…
1899 · PDF PAGE 155
LYRICAL AND DRAMATIC. 133 AN ODE. VOICE of sightless magic Clear through day’s crystal sky, Blithe, contemplative, tragic, As men may laugh or sigh, As men may love or sorrow, Their moods thy music borrow To bid them live or die. | So sweet, so sad, so lonely, In silent noontide only Thy song-wings float and lie On cloud-foam scarred and riven By God’s red lightnings shriven, And quiet hours are given To him that lingers nigh. Fain would I linger near thee Amid the poppies red, Forget this world, and hear thee As one among the dead, Amid the da…
1899 · PDF PAGE 190
…ght Surge in the vast. Before my vision lay New oceans gemmed about with sun-bright isles, Peopled with creatures girded up with gold, Women men’s love made glorious to behold, Men clad with sunshine of fair women’s smiles, Fountains of purity and fadeless youth. With a glad heart I turned my steps to seek Their starry groves and streams. A scroll unfurled A cloud from heaven : “ This people loveth truth.” I rose and hid my tear-bespangled cheek. Woe’s me! For I had dreamed it was the world.
1899 · PDF PAGE 219
…MATIC. ‘¥97 She will remain, unshaken yet By storm and sun ; She will remain, when years forget That fierier one. A race of clean strong men shall spring From her pure life. Men shall be happy; bards shall sing The English wife. And thou, forget thou that my mouth ‘Has ever clung | To flame of hell ; that of the south The songs I sung. Forget that I have trampled flowers, And worn the crown Of thorns of roses in the hours So long dropped down. Forget, O white-faced maid, that I Have dallied long In classic bowers and mystery Of classic song. Er…
1899 · PDF PAGE 225
LYRICAL AND DRAMATIC. 203 A SONNET OF BLASPHEMY. XALTED over earth, from hell arisen, There sits a woman, ruddy with the flame Of men’s blood spilt, and her uncleanly shame, And the thrice-venomous vomit of her prison. She sits as one long dead: infernal calm, Chill hatred, wrap her in their poisonous cold. She careth not, but doth disdainly hold Three scourges for man’s soul, that know no balm. They know not any cure. The first is Life, A well of poison. Sowing dust and dung Over men’s hearts, the second scourge, above All shameful deeds, is L…
1899 · PDF PAGE 30
8 JEPHTHAH. CHORUS. And who 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 …
1899 · PDF PAGE 188
…death’s double destinies Clutch at the throat that sobs, and chokes, and strains. Self-damned on earth, live out thy tortured days, That men may look upon thy face, and see How vile a thing of woman born may be. Then, we are done with thee; go, go thy ways To other hells, thou damned of God hereafter, "Mid men’s contempt and hate and pitiless laughter.
1899 · PDF PAGE 46
…elves, and sleep to-night. I will send messages to their dread lord Demanding his fell purpose, threatening ‘ My present aid to you with men of valour Chosen of all your tribes, and charging him As he loves life, and victory, 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…
1899 · PDF PAGE 158
…res And sped from thunder’s thong; Heaven's gates rock, rage, and quiver, Earth’s walls gape wide and shiver, While Freedom doth deliver Men’s spirits with thy song. Ah, chainless, distant, fleeting, To lands that know no sea, Where ocean’s stormy greeting Fills no man’s heart with glee ; Where lovers die or sever, And death destroys for ever And God bears slavery. Fly thither, so thou leave us That no man’s hand may reave us Of this—that we are free. Free all men that may heed thee, On freemen’s praises feed thee, Who chorus full, “ God speed …
1899 · PDF PAGE 49
…ce they came With iron, massacre, and flame, And turn their own devouring blade On city fired and violate maid, That Israel conquer, and men know God is our God against a foe. For the web of the battle is woven Of men that are strong as the sea, When the rocks by its tempest are cloven, And waves wander wild to the lee; When ships are in travail forsaken, And tempest and tumult awaken ; When foam by fresh foam overtaken Boils sanguine and fervent and free. For its sides are a million of paces; Its centre is Death as he stands Pale-horsed, where…
1899 · PDF PAGE 48
…ing 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 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 de…
1899 · PDF PAGE 45
JEPHTHAH. 23 His wrong he may not forget, But he pitieth men that call From the heart that is broken with fear and the noise of funeral. JEPHTHAH. Are all these ready for their hearth and altars To perish suddenly upon the field, Pavilioned with the little tents at noon, And ere the nightfall tented with the dead, And every hollow made a sepulchre, And every hill a vantage ground whereon Hard-breathing fighting men get scanty sleep Till the dawn lift his eyebrows, and the day Renew the battle? Will ye follow me Through slippery ways of blood to…
1899 · PDF PAGE 172
…o stretches out no arm at all; Toadstools have wrecked fair cities in a night, One poet’s song may bid a kingdom fall. Add to thy fellow-men one ounce of aid— The block begins to shift, the start is made: The rest is thine; with overwhelming might The balance changes, and the task is paid. Join’st thou thy feeble hands in foolish prayer To him thy brain hath moulded and set there In thy brain’s heaven? Such a god replies As thy fears move. So men pray everywhere. What God there be, is real. By His might Begot the universe within the night; If H…
1899 · PDF PAGE 41
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…
1899 · PDF PAGE 17
…s your lie—our heel its head Bruises, that bruised us once ; the snake is dead. Who of mankind that honours man discerns That man of all men, whose high spirit burns, Crowned over life, and conqueror of death, The godhood that was Christ of Nazareth— Who of all men, that will not gird his brand And purge from priestcraft the uxorious land? Christ, who lived, died, and lived, that man might be Tameless and tranquil as the summer sea, That laughs with love of the broad skies of noon, And dreams of lazy kissings of the moon, But listens for the su…