Page:The Hundred Best Poems (lyrical) in the English language - second series.djvu/131

 "The balmy moon of blessed Israel Floods all the deep-blue gloom with beams divine: All night the splinter'd crags that wall the dell With spires of silver shine."

As one that museth where broad sunshine laves The lawn by some cathedral, thro' the door Hearing the holy organ rolling waves Of sound on roof and floor

Within, and anthem sung, is charm'd and tied To where he stands,—so stood I, when that flow Of music left the lips of her that died To save her father's vow;

The daughter of the warrior Gileadite, A maiden pure; as when she went along From Mizpeh's tower'd gate with welcome light, With timbrel and with song.

My words leapt forth: "Heaven heads the count of crimes With that wild oath."She render'd answer high: "Not so, nor once alone; a thousand times I would be born and die.

"Single I grew, like some green plant, whose root Creeps to the garden water-pipes beneath, Feeding the flower; but ere my flower to fruit Changed, I was ripe for death.

"My God, my land, my father—these did move Me from my bliss of life, that Nature gave, 109