Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ROSH-HASHANAH, by JOSEPH KEARNEY FORAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ROSH-HASHANAH, by                    
First Line: I stood, to-day, in a temple
Last Line: Their strength must nobler grow!
Subject(s): Jews; Rosh Hashanah; Judaism


I STOOD, to-day, in a temple,
Like one of the olden time;
And I dreamt a dream recalling
The scenes in an Orient clime;
And I felt, though somewhat strangely,
An influence sublime!

And before me hung the tablets
Of the old Mosaic law;
And the white-robed ancient Rabbis,
Again, in that dream I saw;
And the Hebrew psalms are chanted,
Those hymns of praise and awe.

And Israel's pristine splendor
Arose, as in days of old,
When each prophet after prophet
His tale of promise told;
And the shades of by-gone glories
Before my vision rolled.

'Tis the New Year of the Hebrew;
That ancient sacred day,
When the memories of the ages,
Awake from time's decay,
And the hopes of future glories
Are bright as the morning's ray!

I beheld the chosen children
Of the Great Eternal God,
Still bend in mute submission
To sorrow's painful rod;
Desirous still to follow
The road by their fathers trod.

And I asked if a faith so lofty
Could be but a passing show?
And the echoes of the by-gone
Replied to my doubtings, "No."
And I felt in their constant waiting,
Their strength must nobler grow!





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