Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/42

38 Of all his impious purpose, brave with love, His mother stood, arid stretched her arms above To tear the idol from her darling's hand; But one fierce look, and rang a harsh command In Jacob's voice, that smote her like a sword. A thousand men sprang forward at the word, To tear the mother from the form of stone. And cast her forth; but, as he stood alone. The keen, heart-broken wail that cut the air Went two-edged through him, half reproach, half prayer.

But all unheeding, he nor marked her cry By sign or look within the gloomy eye; But round his body bound the carven case, And swore the fealty with marble face.

As fades a dream before slow-waking sense, The shadowy host, that late stood fixed and dense, Began to melt; and as they came erewhile, The streams flowed backward through each moon-lit aisle;