As they stood in their beauty and strength by my side, Tall like their sire, with the princely grace Of his stately form, and the bloom of his face. "O, what an hour for a mother's heart, When the pitiless ruffians tore us apart! When I clasped their knees and wept and prayed, And struggled and shrieked to Heaven for aid, And clung to my sons with desperate strength, Till the murderers loosed my hold at length, And bore me breathless and faint aside, In their iron arms, while my children died. They died, - and the mother that gave them birth Is forbid to cover their bones with earth. - "The barley-harvest was nodding white, The sun is dim in the thickening sky, Where he hides his light at the doors of the west. William Cullen Bryant. Gilboa. LAMENTATION OF DAVID OVER SAUL AND JONATHAN. HY beauty, Israel, is fled, THY Sunk to the dead; How are the valiant fallen! the slain Thy mountains stain. O, let it not in Gath be known, Nor in the streets of Ashkelon. Lest that sad story should excite Lest in the torrent of our woe Lest their triumphant daughters ring Yon hills of Gilboa, never may No morning dew, nor fruitful showers, Saul and his arms there made a spoil, As if untouched with sacred oil. The bow of noble Jonathan Great battles won; His arrows on the mighty fed, With slaughter red. Saul never raised his arm in vain, How lovely! O, how pleasant! when Than eagles swifter, stronger far Than lions are; Whom love in life so strongly tied, Sad Israel's daughters, weep for Saul; Who fed you with the earth's increase, With robes of Tyrian purple decked, How are thy worthies by the sword O Jonathan! the better part Of my torn heart! The savage rocks have drunk thy blood: Thy love was great; O, never more No woman when most passionate Loved at that rate! How are the mighty fallen in fight! George Sandys. SAUL. NAID Abner, "At last thou art come! SAID Ere I tell, ere thou speak, Kiss my cheek, wish me well!" Then I wished it, And did kiss his cheek: And he, "Since the king, O my friend, For thy countenance sent, Nor drunken nor eaten have we; Nor, until from his tent Thou return with the joyful assurance The king liveth yet, Shall our lip with the honey be brightened, "For out of the black mid-tent's silence, A space of three days, No sound hath escaped to thy servants, To betoken that Saul and the Spirit Have ended their strife, And that faint in his triumph the monarch "Yet now my heart leaps, O beloved! God's child, with his dew On thy gracious gold hair, and those lilies Still living and blue As thou break'st them to twine round thy harp-strings, As if no wild heat Were raging to torture the desert!" Then I, as was meet, Knelt down to the God of my fathers, And rose on my feet, And ran o'er the sand burnt to powder. The tent was unlooped; I pulled up the spear that obstructed, And under I stooped; Hands and knees o'er the slippery grass-patch All withered and gone, That leads to the second enclosure, I groped my way on, Till I felt where the foldskirts fly open; Then once more I prayed, And opened the foldskirts and entered, And spoke, "Here is David, thy servant!" And first I saw naught but the blackness, A something more black than the blackness; Main-prop which sustains the pavilion,— And slow into sight Grew a figure, gigantic, against it, Then a sunbeam, that burst through the tent-roof, Showed Saul. He stood as erect as that tent-prop; Both arms stretched out wide On the great cross-support in the centre |