Judah

WHILE the tribes of earth yet in the darkness groped,

Ere iron savagery set free,

O Judah! had’st thou with science coped

In law and poesy.

God’s chosen people, thy songs are sung

In the great world to-day;

In every clime, in every tongue,

Thy name shall last for aye!

Since time began, yea, when the earth

We’re told was very young,

Fair Judah flourished and gave birth

To wise men who have sung—

Psalms wherein human longings bring

Home to each heart to-day

The unspoken hope, the desire to cling

To a Higher Power alway.

Strong nations rise at last to fall

Beneath the strokes of Fate;

But Judah rises like a wall—

Invincible ’gainst hate.

Two thousand years have not sufficed,

Tho’ of Fatherland despoiled,

To destroy the race by all despised,

Or tarnish a name unsoiled.