Page:The poems of George Eliot (Crowell, 1884).djvu/472

 THE DEATH OF MOSES.

OSES, who spake with God as with his friend,

And ruled his people with the twofold power

Of wisdom that can dare and still be meek,

Was writing his last word, the sacred name

Unutterable of that Eternal Will

Which was and is and evermore shall be.

Yet was his task not finished, for the flock

Needed its shepherd and the life-taught sage

Leaves no successor ; but to chosen men.

The rescuers and guides of Israel,

A death was given called the Death of Grace,

Which freed them from the burden of the flesh

But left them rulers of the multitude

And loved companions of the lonely. This

Was God's last gift to Moses, this the hour

When soul must part from self and be but soul.

God spake to Gabriel, the messenger

Of mildest death that draws the parting life

Gently, as when a little rosy child

Lifts up its lips from off the bowl of milk

And so draws forth a curl that dipped its gold

In the soft white — thus Gabriel draws the soul.

"Go bring the soul of Moses unto me !"

And the awe-stricken angel answered, "Lord,

How shall I dare to take his life who lives

Sole of his kind, not to be likened once

In all the generations of the earth ? "