NO pain can nullify the boon of birth, And who would take the sweet, yet grudge the dole, Have Jacob's dream, yet shun his bed of earth, Prevail with God, yet keep the sinew whole? For forty days on Horeb's awful height Who would not barter Eshcol's vintage rare, Pomegranates, figs, the long expected land, Yea all that Nebo showed the straining sight Of storied woods, deep streams and pastures fair, From Jordan's banks to Sharon's blinding strand? Who would not brave the whirlwind and the fire (Most dreadful prelude!) for the dulcet tones And single music of a silver lyre As God Himself His fearful servant owns? Who would not as a thunderbolt be hurled To blast a perjured queen and impious king, To blaze on Carmel terrible and grand, Arouse a woman-cowed and craven world, Feed from a raven's or an angel's wing, Then flash back flaming to the Hurler's Hand. I would not shirk the hour of deep despair Beneath the juniper, nor that fierce grief The patriarch on Mount Moriah bare, While yet the watching Heaven withheld relief; But not to suffer basely, would I crave, Clinging to Sodom spite of angel goad And hand; or clamouring for quails, to find Therewith leanness of soul: a murmuring slave, Desiring Canaan, fearful of the road, And fretful for the fleshpots left behind. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT THE CHURCH DOOR by GEORGE SANTAYANA THE KIND MOON by SARA TEASDALE EPISTLE TO ROBERT, EARL OF OXFORD, AND EARL MORTIMER by ALEXANDER POPE L. OF G.'S PURPORT by WALT WHITMAN HUMAN FLIES by KATHARINE ADAMS BEAUTY'S ARMOURY by AL-HADRAMI URANIA; THE WOMAN IN THE MOON: THE THIRD CANTO, OR FULL MOON by WILLIAM BASSE |