Page:The Poems of Henry Kendall (1920).djvu/143



caves of the sea have been troubled to-day

With the water which whitens, and widens, and fills;

And a boat with our brother was driven away

By a wind that came down from the tops of the hills.

Behold I have seen on the threshold again

A face in a dazzle of hair!

Do you know that she watches the rain, and the main,

And the waves which are moaning there?

Ah, moaning and moaning there!

Now turn from your casements, and fasten your doors,

And cover your faces, and pray, if you can;

There are wails in the wind, there are sighs on the shores,

And alas, for the fate of a storm-beaten man!

Oh, dark falls the night on the rain-rutted verge,

So sad with the sound of the foam!

Oh, wild is the sweep and the swirl of the surge;

And his boat may never come home!

Ah, never and never come home!

noise of battle and the dust of fray,

Half hid in fog, the gloomy mountain lay;

But Succoth's watchers, from their outer fields,

Saw fits of flame and gleams of clashing shields;

For, where the yellow river draws its spring,

The hosts of Israel travelled, thundering!

There, beating like the storm that sweeps to sea

Across the reefs of chafing Galilee,

The car of Abner and the sword of Saul

Drave Gaza down Gilboa's southern wall;

But swift and sure the spears of Ekron flew,

Till peak and slope were drenched with bloody dew.

Shout, Timnath, shout!" the blazing leaders cried,

And hurled the stone and dashed the stave aside.

Shout, Timnath, shout! Let Hazor hold the height,

Bend the long bow and break the lords of fight!"