Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE NEW JEWISH HOSPITAL AT HAMBURG, by HEINRICH HEINE Poet's Biography First Line: A hospital for the poor and weary jew Last Line: For his poor brethren's immedicable ill. Subject(s): Hamburg, Germany; Hospitals; Jews; Judaism | ||||||||
A HOSPITAL for the poor and weary Jew, For sons of man that suffer three-fold ills; Burdened and baned with three infirmities; With poverty, disease. and Judaism! The worst of all has ever been the last, The Jewish sickness of the centuries, The plague caught in the Nile stream's slimy vale, The old unwholesome faith that Egypt knew. No healing for this sickness! All in vain The vapor-bath and douch, vain all the tricks Of surgery, vain all this house may bring Of simples to its fever-tossing guests. Will Time perchance, the eternal goddess, blot This gloomy sorrow that handed down From sire to sonwill some far children know The perfect happiness of cloudless health? None can foretell! Yet meantime let us praise The heart that full of love and wisdom sought To trickle balm upon the rankling wound, To give what comfort still is possible. This loving man has built a shelter here For suffering that a skillful hand may soothe Or cure, or haply Death's if others fail. Beds sets he here and cooling drinks and care. A man of deeds, he did what one might do And in the evening of his days he paid Unto good works the needful due, and dreamed To rest from labor in kind charity. Unstinted was his handyet richer gifts Rolled down his cheeks so many a timethe tears, The precious, generous tears that oft he wept For his poor brethren's immedicable ill. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE RABBI'S SON-IN-LAW by SABINE BARING-GOULD A LITTLE HISTORY by DAVID LEHMAN FOR I WILL CONSIDER YOUR DOG MOLLY by DAVID LEHMAN JEWISH GRAVEYARDS, ITALY by PHILIP LEVINE NATIONAL THOUGHTS by YEHUDA AMICHAI SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#3): 2. ANGEL ... by MARVIN BELL |
|