| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | During the Crusades (“Yes, they slay us and they smite”) | | By E. H. Plumptre |
| | | YES, they slay us and they smite, | |
| Vex our souls with sore affright; | |
| All the closer cleave we, Lord, | |
| To thine everlasting word. | |
| Not a word of all their Mass | 5 |
| Shall our lips in homage pass; | |
| Though they curse, and bind, and kill, | |
| The living God is with us still. | |
| Yes, they fain would make us now, | |
| Baptized, at Baal’s altar bow; | 10 |
| On their raiment, wrought with gold, | |
| See the sign we hateful hold; | |
| And, with words of foulest shame, | |
| They outrage, Lord, the holiest name. | |
| We still are thine, though limbs are torn; | 15 |
| Better death than life forsworn. | |
| |
| Noblest matrons seek for death, | |
| Rob their children of their breath; | |
| Fathers, in their fiery zeal, | |
| Slay their sons with murderous steel; | 20 |
| And in heat of holiest strife, | |
| For love of Thee, spare not their life. | |
| The fair and young lie down to die | |
| In witness of Thy Unity; | |
| From dying lips the accents swell, | 25 |
| “Thy God is One, O Israel”; | |
| And bridegroom answers unto bride, | |
| “The Lord is One, and none beside”; | |
| And, knit with bonds of holiest faith, | |
| They pass to endless life through death. | 30 | | | |
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