Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AS JACOB SERVED FOR RACHEL, by ANONYMOUS First Line: Twas the love that lightened service! Last Line: "twas love that lightened service, / the old, old story sweet" Subject(s): Jacob (bible);jews; Judaism | ||||||||
'TWAS the love that lightened service! The old, old story sweet That yearning lips and waiting hearts In melody repeat. As Jacob served for Rachel Beneath the Syrian sky, Like the golden sands that swiftly drop The toiling years went by. Chill fell the dews upon him, Fierce smote the sultry sun; But what were cold and heat to him, Till that dear wife was won! The angels whispered in his ear "Be patient and be strong!" And the thought of her he waited for Was ever like a song. Sweet Rachel, with the secret To hold a brave man leal; To keep him through the changeful years Her own in woe and weal; So that in age and exile, The death damp on his face, Her name to the dark valley lent Its own peculiar grace. And "There I buried Rachel," He said of that lone spot In Ephrath, near to Bethlehem, Where the wife he loved was not; For God has taken from him The brightness and the zest, And the heaven above thenceforward kept In fee his very best. Of the love that lightens service, Dear God, how much we see, When the father toils the livelong day For the children at his knee; When all night the mother wakes, Nor deem the vigil hard, The rose of health on sick one's cheek, Her happy heart's reward. The love that lightens service The fisherman can tell, When he wrests the bread his dear ones eat Where the bitter surges swell; And the farmer in the furrow, The merchant in the mart, Count little worth their weary toil For the treasures of the heart. As Jacob served for Rachel Beneath the Syrian sky, And the golden sands of toiling years Went swiftly slipping by, The thought of her was music To cheer his weary feet, 'Twas love that lightened service, The old, old story sweet. | 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 TIS A LITTLE JOURNEY by ANONYMOUS |
|