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Home  »  The New Poetry  »  The Old Jew

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

The Old Jew

By Maxwell Bodenheim

NO fawn-tinged hospital pajamas could cheat him of his austerity,

Which tamed even the doctors with its pure fire.

They examined him; made him bow to them:

Massive altars were they, at whose swollen feet grovelled a worshiper.

Then they laughed, half in scorn of him; and there came a miracle.

The little man was above them at a bound.

His austerity, like an irresistible sledge-hammer, drove them lower and lower:

They dwindled while he soared.