TWO SONNETS FROM THE HEBREW
I. THE PREPARATION
"And he said, I will not destroy it for the ten's sake."
Look back and see this brooding tenderness!
Ye wait till Bethlehem? Nay then, not I!
Under the law doth Israel ever sigh?
Is there no mercy till the great redress?
See now, amid the nameless wickedness
Love dreadeth lest one soul of his should die,
Spareth and faltereth and passeth by,
Soft'ning the law to ease a son's distress.
Ye wait till Bethlehem? Nay then, not I!
Under the law doth Israel ever sigh?
Is there no mercy till the great redress?
See now, amid the nameless wickedness
Love dreadeth lest one soul of his should die,
Spareth and faltereth and passeth by,
Soft'ning the law to ease a son's distress.
Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?
Aye, child, and more! thou hast not learned to spell
Love's first great letter: centuries of pain
Still leave him terrible in thy scared sight
Who quencheth with his tears the fires of hell,
And yearneth o'er the cities of the Plain!
Aye, child, and more! thou hast not learned to spell
Love's first great letter: centuries of pain
Still leave him terrible in thy scared sight
Who quencheth with his tears the fires of hell,
And yearneth o'er the cities of the Plain!
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