Poems by John Hay Part 9

Forever in thine eyes, O Liberty, Shines that high light whereby the world is saved, And though thou slay us, we will trust in thee!

The White Flag

I sent my love two roses,--one As white as driven snow, And one a blushing royal red, A flaming Jacqueminot.

I meant to touch and test my fate; That night I should divine, The moment I should see my love, If her true heart were mine.

For if she holds me dear, I said, She'll wear my blushing rose; If not, she'll wear my cold Lamarque, As white as winter's snows.

My heart sank when I met her: sure I had been overbold, For on her breast my pale rose lay In virgin whiteness cold.

Yet with low words she greeted me, With smiles divinely tender; Upon her cheek the red rose dawned,-- The white rose meant surrender.

The Law of Death

The song of Kilvani: fairest she In all the land of Savatthi.

She had one child, as sweet and gay And dear to her as the light of day.

She was so young, and he so fair, The same bright eyes and the same dark hair; To see them by the blossomy way, They seemed two children at their play.

There came a death-dart from the sky, Kilvani saw her darling die.

The glimmering shade his eyes invades, Out of his cheek the red bloom fades; His warm heart feels the icy chill, The round limbs shudder, and are still And yet Kilvani held him fast Long after life's last pulse was past, As if her kisses could restore The smile gone out forevermore.

But when she saw her child was dead, She scattered ashes on her head, And seized the small corpse, pale and sweet, And rushing wildly through the street, She sobbing fell at Buddha's feet.

"Master, all-helpful, help me now!

Here at thy feet I humbly bow; Have mercy, Buddha, help me now!"

She groveled on the marble floor, And kissed the dead child o'er and o'er.

And suddenly upon the air There fell the answer to her prayer: "Bring me to-night a lotus tied With thread from a house where none has died."

She rose, and laughed with thankful joy, Sure that the G.o.d would save the boy.

She found a lotus by the stream; She plucked it from its noonday dream.

And then from door to door she fared, To ask what house by Death was spared.

Her heart grew cold to see the eyes Of all dilate with slow surprise: "Kilvani, thou hast lost thy head; Nothing can help a child that's dead.

There stands not by the Ganges' side A house where none hath ever died."

Thus, through the long and weary day, From every door she bore away Within her heart, and on her arm, A heavier load, a deeper harm.

By gates of gold and ivory, By wattled huts of poverty, The same refrain heard poor Kilvani, _The living are few, the dead are many._

The evening came--so still and fleet-- And overtook her hurrying feet.

And, heartsick, by the sacred fane She fell, and prayed the G.o.d again.

She sobbed and beat her bursting breast "Ah, thou hast mocked me, Mightiest!

Lo! I have wandered far and wide; There stands no house where none hath died."

And Buddha answered, in a tone Soft as a flute at twilight blown, But grand as heaven and strong as death To him who hears with ears of faith: "Child, thou art answered. Murmur not!

Bow, and accept the common lot."

Kilvani heard with reverence meet, And laid her child at Buddha's feet.

Mount Tabor

On Tabor's height a glory came, And, shrined in clouds of lambent flame, The awestruck, hushed disciples saw Christ and the prophets of the law.

Moses, whose grand and awful face Of Sinai's thunder bore the trace, And wise Elias,--in his eyes The shade of Israel's prophecies,-- Stood in that wide, mysterious light, Than Syrian noons more purely bright, One on each hand, and high between Shone forth the G.o.dlike Nazarene.

They bowed their heads in holy fright,-- No mortal eyes could bear the sight,-- And when they looked again, behold!

The fiery clouds had backward rolled, And borne aloft in grandeur lonely, Nothing was left "save Jesus only."

Resplendent type of things to be!

We read its mystery to-day With clearer eyes than even they, The fisher-saints of Galilee.

We see the Christ stand out between The ancient law and faith serene, Spirit and letter; but above Spirit and letter both was Love.

Led by the hand of Jacob's G.o.d, Through wastes of eld a path was trod By which the savage world could move Upward through law and faith to love.

And there in Tabor's harmless flame The crowning revelation came.

The old world knelt in homage due, The prophets near in reverence drew, Law ceased its mission to fulfill, And Love was lord on Tabor's hill.

So now, while creeds perplex the mind And wranglings load the weary wind, When all the air is filled with words And texts that ring like clashing swords, Still, as for refuge, we may turn Where Tabor's shining glories burn,-- The soul of antique Israel gone, And nothing left but Christ alone.

Religion and Doctrine

He stood before the Sanhedrim; The scowling rabbis gazed at him.

He recked not of their praise or blame; There was no fear, there was no shame, For one upon whose dazzled eyes The whole world poured its vast surprise.

The open heaven was far too near, His first day's light too sweet and clear, To let him waste his new-gained ken On the hate-clouded face of men.

But still they questioned, Who art thou?

What hast thou been? What art thou now?

Thou art not he who yesterday Sat here and begged beside the way; For he was blind.

--_And I am he; For I was blind, but now I see_.

He told the story o'er and o'er; It was his full heart's only lore: A prophet on the Sabbath-day Had touched his sightless eyes with clay, And made him see who had been blind.

Their words pa.s.sed by him like the wind, Which raves and howls, but cannot shock The hundred-fathom-rooted rock.

Their threats and fury all went wide; They could not touch his Hebrew pride.

Their sneers at Jesus and His band, Nameless and homeless in the land, Their boasts of Moses and his Lord, All could not change him by one word.

_I know not what this man may be, Sinner or saint; but as for me, One thing I know,--that I am he Who once was blind, and now I see_.

They were all doctors of renown, The great men of a famous town, With deep brows, wrinkled, broad, and wise, Beneath their wide phylacteries; The wisdom of the East was theirs, And honor crowned their silver hairs.

The man they jeered and laughed to scorn Was unlearned, poor, and humbly born; But he knew better far than they What came to him that Sabbath-day; And what the Christ had done for him He knew, and not the Sanhedrim.