Classic Poem

In all that olden Israelitish lore
Whose lofty beauty fills the ages' span,
'Mid all those mighty souls who being bore,
There was one man, a king, who lived a man.

Smitten of heaven, scourged of all earth's woes,
With love and kinship, wealth forsworn and fled;
Stung by those friends, worse ills to men than foes,
Tormenting where they might have comforted:—

Stripped of all hopes that common men hold dear,
Polluted of body, clothed with leprous scars,
There 'mid his ashes alien from his race,
He still maintained his being without fear,
And lifting agonized eyeballs to the stars,
Did question Deity, naked, face to face.