Page:The Poems and Prose remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, volume 2 (1869).djvu/93

 As in that day, the long long years agone, When first I met thee with my father's flock.

And Leah said, Come, Israel, unto me; And thou shalt reap an harvest of fair sons, E'en as before I bare thee goodly babes; For when was Leah fruitless to my lord?

And Rachel said, Ah come! as then thou cam'st, Come once again to set thy seal of love; As then, down bending, when the sheep had drunk, Thou settedst it, my shepherd—O sweet seal!— Upon the unwitting, half-foretasting lips, Which, shy and trembling, thirsted yet for thine As cattle thirsted never for the spring.

And Leah answered, Are not these their names— As Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah—four? Like four young saplings by the water's brim, Where straining rivers through the great plain wind— Four saplings soon to rise to goodly trees— Four trees whose growth shall cast an huger shade Than ever yet on river-side was seen.

And Rachel said, And shall it be again As, when dissevered far, unheard, alone, Consumed in bitter anger all night long, I moaned and wept, while, silent and discreet, One reaped the fruit of love that Rachel's was Upon the breast of him that knew her not?

And Leah said, And was it then a wrong That, in submission to a father's word, Trembling yet hopeful, to that bond I crept,