Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FOR DREYFUS (BEFORE THE 'PARDON'), by ANNIE MATHESON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FOR DREYFUS (BEFORE THE 'PARDON'), by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O truth eternal, in whose name they mock
Last Line: While love and truth their cryptic word reveal!
Subject(s): Dreyfus, Alfred (1859-1935)


FIRST VOICE.

O TRUTH ETERNAL, in whose Name they mock,
Wound, crucify, not marking how they stain
Thy seamless robe with torture, treachery, pain,—
Thee have they flouted in the prison-dock
Who canst the secrets of the world unlock!
O Son of Mary, Jewish Mary, slain
Only to conquer! prison-walls are vain
When on the prison-door they hear Thee knock.

But, for the Jailors, blinded ere they fell,
Poor souls who prayed and wept before they swerved,
Them most I pity, each in his own hell,
For friends of all Unrighteousness reserved,—
Still banqueting where unjust stewards dwell,
Their manhood lost, soul twisted, sight unnerved.

SECOND VOICE.

AH, what avail compassion, scorn, and hate?
Scorn may ring valiant, pity may be true;
But all your clamours have not saved the Jew
Who looked unblenching in the eyes of fate!—
Amid the agonies that devastate,
Madden and wither, ever strong and new,
Brave, stood his noble hope in God and you,
His fellow-men, and in his fearless mate.

Go break the bars of destiny and move
The mountains: sternly, spoke by spoke,
Reverse the awful power of Fortune's wheel!
Anguish of passion, prayer, and effort prove
Till base Injustice all her game revoke,
While Love and Truth their cryptic word reveal!





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