| |
| THE GOD of Israel sate on high, | |
| And methought He mocked the dead; | |
| The twisted limbs of agony, | |
| The staring eyes of dread, | |
| The lips that froze on a dying prayer | 5 |
| And blessed Him as they bled. | |
| |
| The God of Israel sate on high, | |
| And He mocked His people’s trust; | |
| He heard the tyrant’s blasphemy, | |
| He saw the Injustice just; | 10 |
| He saw the valley strewn with death | |
| And the wind that blew its dust. | |
| |
| I raised my voice and cried aloud | |
| (He smiled as if He heard): | |
| “Behold, dishonour is their shroud | 15 |
| For that they keep Thy Word: | |
| They strangle them with thongs of shame | |
| Or hew them with the sword. | |
| |
| “With stripes and steel and bitter scorn | |
| They trample down their pride; | 20 |
| The silent souls of the yet unborn | |
| Lie maimed in the soul of the bride; | |
| In bitterness their hearts awake, | |
| In bitterness abide. | |
| |
| “In bitterness, in bitterness | 25 |
| They gaze upon the past, | |
| Nor worship they Thy Word the less, | |
| Nor scorn Thy Word at last, | |
| Who, free within Thy bounteous air, | |
| In bonds of hate are cast. | 30 |
| |
| “For bonds that cleave the flesh are ill, | |
| But other bonds are base | |
| That cleave the heart’s benignant will, | |
| Or darken for a space | |
| The eyes of reason and of right.” | 35 |
| Yea, thus I cried apace. | |
| |
| The God of Israel smiled on high | |
| As on a babbling child; | |
| But I saw the bays of victory, | |
| And Justice undefiled, | 40 |
| And Mind and Honour hand in hand, | |
| And Envy reconciled. | |
| |
| The Past had doffed its robe of pain, | |
| Flung off its mourning-hood, | |
| When Joy upraised her veil again | 45 |
| And found the Future good; | |
| She raised the folds of her lustrous cloak | |
| There—clear-eyed Duty stood. | |
| |
