Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, "HEAR, O ISRAEL!: 3", by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

"HEAR, O ISRAEL!: 3", by                    
First Line: "brothers mine, fling out your white banners over this red sea of wrath"
Last Line: Press on - press on
Subject(s): Freedom;israel;red Sea; Liberty


Brothers mine, fling out your white banners over this Red Sea of wrath!
Hear ye not the Death-cry of a thousand burning, bleeding wrongs?
Against the enemy lift thy sword of fire, even thou, O Israel! whose prophet I am.
For I, of all thy race, with these tear-blinded eyes, still see the watch-fire leaping up its
blood-red flame from the ramparts of our Jerusalem!
And my heart alone beats and palpitates, rises and falls with the glimmering and the gleaming of
the golden beacon flame, by whose light I shall lead thee, O my people! back to freedom!
Give me time -- oh give me time to strike from your brows the shadow-crowns of Wrong!
On the anvil of my heart will I rend the chains that bind ye.
Look upon me -- oh look upon me, as I turn from the world -- from love, and passion, to lead thee,
thou Chosen of God, back to the pastures of Right and Life!
Fear me not; for the best blood that heaves this heart now runs for thee, thou Lonely Nation!
Why wear ye not the crown of eternal royalty, that God set down upon your heads?
Back, tyrants of the red hands!
Slouch back to your ungodly tents, and hide the Cainbrand on your foreheads!
Life for life, blood for blood, is the lesson ye teach us.
We, the Children of Israel, will not creep to the kennel graves ye are scooping out with iron
hands, like scourged hounds!
Israel! rouse ye from the slumber of ages, and, though Hell welters at your feet, carve a road
through these tyrants!
The promised dawn-light is here; and God -- O the God of our nation is calling!
Press on -- press on!





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