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THE

THE CRANES OF IBYCUS.

HERE was a man who watched the river flow
Past the huge town, one gray November day.
Round him in narrow high-piled streets at play
The boys made merry as they saw him go,
Murmuring half-loud, with eyes upon the stream,
The immortal screed he held within his hand.
For he was walking in an April land

With Faust and Helen. Shadowy as a dream
Was the prose-world, the river and the town.
Wild joy possessed him; through enchanted skies
He saw the cranes of Ibycus swoop down.
He closed the page, he lifted up his eyes,
Lo-a black line of birds in wavering thread
Bore him the greetings of the deathless dead!

THE CROWING OF THE RED COCK.

ACROSS the Eastern sky has glowed When the long roll of Christian guilt

The flicker of a blood-red dawn,

Once more the clarion cock has crowed,
Once more the sword of Christ is
drawn.

A million burning rooftrees light
The world-wide path of Israel's flight.

Where is the Hebrew's fatherland?

The folk of Christ is sore bestead;
The Son of Man is bruised and banned.
Nor finds whereon to lay his head.
His cup is gall, his meat is tears,
His passion lasts a thousand years.

Against his sires and kin is known,
The flood of tears, the life-blood spilt,
The agony of ages shown,

What oceans can the stain remove,
From Christian law and Christian love?

Nay, close the book; not now, not here,
The hideous tale of sin narrate,
Reëchoing in the martyr's ear,

Even he might nurse revengeful hate,
Even he might turn in wrath sublime,
With blood for blood and crime for
crime.

Each crime that wakes in man the beast, Coward? Not he, who faces death,

Is visited upon his kind.

The lust of mobs, the greed of priest,
The tyranny of kings, combined
To root his seed from earth again,
His record is one cry of pain.

Who singly against worlds has fought, For what? A name he may not breathe,

For liberty of prayer and thought. The angry sword he will not whet, His nobler task is to forget.

THE DANCE TO DEATH.

[The Dance to Death. A Historical Tragedy.-Songs of a Semite. 1882.]

PLACE Nordhausen, Saxony. TIME: May, A. D. 1349.

ACT V. SCENE III.-Within the Synagogue. Above in the gallery, women sumptuously attired; some with children by the hand or infants in their arms. Below, the men and boys with silken scarfs about their shoulders.

R

ABBI JACOB. The Lord is nigh unto the broken heart.

Out of the depths we cry to thee, O God!

Show us the path of everlasting life;

For in thy presence is the plenitude

Of joy, and in thy right hand endless bliss.
[Enter SÜSSKIND, REUBEN, etc.]

SEVERAL VOICES. Woe unto us who perish!
A JEW.

Süsskind von Orb,

Thou hast brought down this doom. Would we had heard
The prophet's voice!

SÜSSKIND.

Brethren, my cup is full!

Oh let us die as warriors of the Lord.
The Lord is great in Zion. Let our death
Bring no reproach to Jacob, no rebuke
To Israel. Hark ye! let us crave one boon
At our assassins' hands; beseech them build
Within God's acre, where our fathers sleep,
A dancing-floor to hide the fagots stacked.
Then let the minstrels strike the harp and lute,
And we will dance and sing above the pile,
Fearless of death, until the flames engulf,
Even as David danced before the Lord,
As Miriam danced and sang beside the sea.
Great is our Lord! His name is glorious
In Judah, and extolled in Israel!
In Salem is his tent, his dwelling-place
In Zion; let us chant the praise of God!

A JEW. Süsskind, thou speakest well! We will meet death
With dance and song. Embrace him as a bride.

So that the Lord receive us in His tent.

SEVERAL VOICES. Amen! amen! amen! we dance to death!
RABBI JACOB. Süsskind, go forth and beg this grace of them.

[Exit SUSSKIND.]

Punish us not in wrath, chastise us not

In anger, oh our God! Our sins o'erwhelm
Our smitten heads, they are a grievous load;
We look on our iniquities, we tremble,
Knowing our trespasses. Forsake us not.
Be thou not far from us. Haste to our aid,
Oh God, who art our Saviour and our Rock!

[Reënter SÜSSKIND.]

SÜSSKIND. Brethren, our prayer, being the last, is granted.

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From mortal anguish to the ecstasy

Of martyrdom, the blessed death of those

Who perish in the Lord. I see, I see

How Israel's ever-crescent glory makes

These flames that would eclipse it dark as blots

Of candle-light against the blazing sun.

We die a thousand deaths, drown, bleed, and burn;
Our ashes are dispersed unto the winds.
Yet the wild winds cherish the sacred seed,
The waters guard it in their crystal heart,
The fire refuseth to consume. It springs,
A tree immortal, shadowing many lands,
Unvisited, unnamed, undreamed as yet.
Rather a vine, full-flowered, golden-branched,
Ambrosial-fruited, creeping on the earth,
Trod by the passer's foot, yet chosen to deck
Tables of princes. Israel now has fallen
Into the depths, he shall be great in time.
Even as we die in honor, from our death
Shall bloom a myriad heroic lives,
Brave through our bright example, virtuous
Lest our great memory fall in disrepute.
Is one among us brothers, would exchange

His doom against our tyrants,-lot for lot?
Let him go forth and live-he is no Jew.

Is one who would not die in Israel

Rather than live in Christ,-their Christ who smiles

On such a deed as this? Let him go forth—

He may die full of years upon his bed.

Ye who nurse rancor haply in your hearts,

Fear ye we perish unavenged? Not so!

To-day, no! nor to-morrow! but in God's time,

Our witnesses arise. Ours is the truth,
Ours is the power, the gift of Heaven.

We hold

His Law, His lamp, His covenant, His pledge.
Wherever in the ages shall arise

Jew-priest, Jew-poet, Jew-singer, or Jew-saint

And everywhere I see them star the gloom

In each of these the martyrs are avenged!

RABBI JACOB. Bring from the Ark the bell-fringed, silken-bound

Scrolls of the Law. Gather the silver vessels,

Dismantle the rich curtains of the doors,

Bring the Perpetual Lamp; all these shall burn,

For Israel's light is darkened, Israel's Law

Profaned by strangers. Thus the Lord hath said:

"The weapon formed against thee shall not prosper,

The tongue that shall contend with thee in judgment,
Thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage

Of the Lord's servants and their righteousness.
For thou shalt come to peoples yet unborn,

Declaring that which He hath done. Amen!"

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