Page:Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley, a native African and a slave.djvu/69

Rh "Goliath, say, shall grace to him be shown,

"Who dares heaven's monarch and insults his throne?"

"Your words are lost on me," the giant cries,

While fear and wrath contended in his eyes;

When thus the messenger from heaven replies:

"Provoke no more Jehovah's awful hand

"To hurl its vengeance on thy guilty land;

"He grasps the thunder, and he wings the storm,

"Servants, their sov'reign's orders to perform."

The angel spoke, and turned his eyes away,

Adding new radiance to the rising day.

Now David comes; the fatal stones demand

His left, the staff engaged his better hand.

The giant moved, and from his tow'ring height

Surveyed the stripling, and disdained the sight,

And thus began: "Am I a dog with thee?

"Bring'st thou no armor but a staff to me?

"The gods on thee their vollied curses pour,

"And beasts and birds of prey thy flesh devour."

David, undaunted, thus: "Thy spear and shield

"Shall no protection to thy body yield:

"Jehovah's name—no other arms I bear;

"I ask no other in this glorious war.

"To-day the Lord of Hosts to me will give

"Victory, to-day thy doom thou shalt receive;

"The fate you threaten shall your own become,

"And beasts shall be your animated tomb,