| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | The Poets of Old Israel | | By John Vance Cheney |
| | | OLD Israel’s readers of the stars, | |
| I love them best. Musing, they read, | |
| In embers of the heavenly hearth, | |
| High truths were never learned below. | |
| They asked not of the barren sands, | 5 |
| They questioned not that stretch of death; | |
| But upward from the humble tent | |
| They took the stairway of the hills; | |
| Upward they climbed, bold in their trust, | |
| To pluck the glory of the stars, | 10 |
| Faith falters, knowledge does not know, | |
| Fast, one by one, the phantoms fade; | |
| But that strange light, unwavering love, | |
| Grasped from the lowered hand of God, | |
| Abides, quenchless forevermore. | 15 | | | |
|
|
