Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Syria: Bethlehem | | Naomi | | Charles D. Bell (1818–1898) |
| | | TWO sad-faced women, haggard, worn, and wan, | |
| Passed wearily through Bethlehem’s sun-scorched street; | |
| The city, moved to pity, round them ran, | |
| And some with wondering cry the strangers greet, | |
| “What! Is this Naomi?” She quickly broke | 5 |
| Upon them trembling, as they thus began,— | |
| “Call me not Naomi,” she weeping spoke, | |
| “For Naomi is numbered with the dead; | |
| My name is Mara, for, O friends, with me | |
| The Lord hath dealt exceeding bitterly! | 10 |
| |
| “The hand of God has touched me, and I mourn; | |
| Has robbed me both of husband and of son; | |
| Woe worth the bitter day that I was born! | |
| My prop, my stay, my life of life, is gone; | |
| I went out full, empty come back to you, | 15 |
| A widow, childless, desolate, and forlorn; | |
| The graves in Moab hold my dead heart too, | |
| I left it with them where they sleep in peace. | |
| So from my years has gone the sun, the light; | |
| I grope as one through some dark dreary night.” | 20 | | | |
|
|
