Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE GHETTO-JEW, by ISRAEL GOLDBERG


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE GHETTO-JEW, by                    
First Line: I marked in the midst of the glittering throng
Last Line: A jeer be the last of its pages?
Alternate Author Name(s): Learsi, Rufus
Subject(s): History; Jews; Jews - Persecution; Memory; Old Age; Historians; Judaism


I MARKED in the midst of the glittering throng
A figure all bent and retreating;
His raiment was shabby, and bearded his face,
His gaze was bewildering and fleeting;
And those whose drossiness glared through the gilt
Guffawed a contemptuous greeting.

Intently I peered in his time lined face
And read there his marvellous story;
His brows were large with the wisdom of pain,
His locks by affliction made hoary;
A memory lurked in the depth of his eyes,
A prayer and a vision of glory.

A mem'ry aglow with the splendors of old,
A prayer of patience and yearning,
And a vision of Home that gleamed in the dark,
Through ages of weary sojourning;
Yet they of the gilded and glittering throng
Had naught but derision and spurning.

He folded a dream to his quivering heart
And nursed it through vigils of ages;
He gave it the blood of his life to absorb
Yet mockery now is his wages.
Shall this be the word his story to close,
A jeer be the last of its pages?





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