Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CID AND THE JEW, by THEOPHILE GAUTIER



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CID AND THE JEW, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: The cid, stern victor in each fight
Last Line: Entered a convent's gloom. Amen.
Alternate Author Name(s): Theo, Le Bon
Subject(s): Death; Graves; Hero-worship; Jews; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones; Judaism


The Cid, stern victor in each fight,
Hero, of more than mortal height,
In the grand church of San Pedro
('Twas Don Alfonso will'd it so)
Embalmed, and seemingly not dead,
Clad in bright steel, and helmeted,
Sits rooted to a stately chair
Raised on a tomb of sculpture rare.
Like a white cloth, his beard of snow
His coat of mail doth overflow,
While to defend him, at this side
Hangs Tisona, his boast and pride,
The polished and elastic blade
That Moor and Christian oft dismay'd.
Thus seated—dead—he seems to keep
The semblance of a man asleep:
Thus for seven years he hath reposed
Since death his life of daring closed,
And, on a certain day, each year,
Crowds gaze upon his corpse in fear.

Once, when all visitors had gone,
And the great Cid was left alone
In the broad nave with God—a Jew
Nigh to the sleeping champion drew,
And thus he spake: "Here sits the frame
Of one whom men still dread to name.
'Tis said the strongest warriors feared
Even to' touch his grizzled beard:
Here now he resteth, mute and cold,
His arms, which scattered foe of old,
Hang stiffened by the hand of death.
Lo! since he hath no longer breath,
Myself will stroke his beard of snow—
I wot the mummy will not know,

And none are present to forbid
My laying hands upon the Cid."

With no presentiment of harm
The sordid Jew outstretched his arm:
But, ere that snowy beard could be
Soiled by his mad impiety,
The Cid from out his scabbard drew
Three feet of steel that dazed the view.
Scared by the ghastly miracle
Prone on the tomb the Hebrew fell:
And when good monks, at close of day
Had borne his palsied limbs away,
He told them his adventure strange,
And vowed a graceless life to change.
Soon he abjured his faith, and then
Entered a convent's gloom. Amen.





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