Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917.

By N. N.

Moses

THRONES that stood and realms that nourished,

Races that have ruled the world,—

They have fallen, they have perished,

And new standards are unfurled.

Gods are banished at whose altars

Nations have been wont to pray,

And where Wisdom erst held sway

Ignorance supinely falters.

Deeds that once with blare and clangor

Filled the earth, have ceased to be;

Even their renown no longer

Lives in lays of minstrelsy.

Lo! the hero’s might is broken

And his sword is gone to rust;

Lips are steeped in death and dust

That have sweetly sung and spoken.

But athwart the gulf of ages

From whose all-devouring deep

Songs of bards and words of sages

Mist like in tradition sweep,—

Radiant and serene reposes,

Unattained by mist and gloom,

Undiminished by the tomb,

A colossal image—Moses.

Though we wot not of his feature,

Of such ken there is no need,

For his aspect is the creature

Of his word and of his deed,—

Of the word that is engraven

Even on the soul that’s lost

Of the deed that led his host

Toward freedom, truth and Heaven.

Thus we see him; Superhuman

In his purpose and in might,

Tender is his love as woman,

Fierce in the defense of right;

Meek and faltering, yet compliant,

In the presence of the Lord,—

In obedience of his word

Bold, unyielding and defiant.

Even as the luminary

Of our days from fumous height—

Lifeless, barren, solitary—

Beams with life diffusing light;

So he rises on our vision

From the past which phantoms shroud,

Life-impregnate, halo-browed,

In the garb of his tradition.

What he wrought and what he uttered,

Where he trod and where he stood;

Where the flaming briar fluttered

In the desert’s solitude;

At the throne of him who trifled

With the wrath revealed of God,

And where with uplifted rod

The pursuing hosts he stifled;

On that pilgrimage unequaled

When he smote the barren rock,

Or by marvel or decree quelled

Ingrate murmurs of his flock;

When from Sinai, rent with thunder,

He descended with the Law:—

Thrills with reverential awe

And compels transcendent wonder.

As he lived so was his passing

Self-obscuring, tranquil, grand,

As with eyes that death was glassing

He beheld the promised land—

Did he ween as on that mountain

He expired meek and brave,

That while man still man would be,

Far into eternity,

He would look on Moses’ grave

As his birthright’s sacred fountain?