Classic Poem

" This now, this other story makes amends
And justifies our Mishna," quoth the Jew
Aforesaid. " Tell it, learnedest of friends!"

A certain morn broke beautiful and blue
O'er Schiphaz city, bringing joy and mirth,
— So had ye deemed; while the reverse was true,

Since one small house there gave a sorrow birth
In such black sort that, to each faithful eye,
Midnight, not morning settled on the earth.

How else, when it grew certain thou wouldst die
Our much-enlightened master, Israel's prop,
Eximious Jochanan Ben Sabbathai?

Old, yea but, undiminished of a drop,
The vital essence pulsed through heart and brain;
Time left unsickled yet the plenteous crop

On poll and chin and cheek, whereof a skein
Handmaids might weave — hairs silk-soft, silver-white,
Such as the wool-plant's; none the less in vain

Had Physic striven her best against the spite
Of fell disease: the Rabbi must succumb;
And, round the couch whereon in piteous plight

He lay a-dying, scholars, — awe-struck, dumb
Throughout the night-watch, — roused themselves and spoke
One to the other: " Ere death's touch benumb

" His active sense, — while yet 'neath Reason's yoke
Obedient toils his tongue, — befits we claim
The fruit of long experience, bid this oak

" Shed us an acorn which may, all the same,
Grow to a temple-pillar, — dear that day! —
When Israel's scattered seed finds place and name

" Among the envious nations. Lamp us, pray,
Thou the Enlightener! Partest hence in peace?
Hailest without regret — much less, dismay —

" The hour of thine approximate release
From fleshly bondage soul hath found obstruct?
Calmly envisagest the sure increase

" Of knowledge? Eden's tree must hold unplucked
Some apple, sure, has never tried thy tooth,
Juicy with sapience thou hast sought, not sucked?

" Say, does age acquiesce in vanished youth?
Still towers thy purity above — as erst —
Our pleasant follies? Be thy last word — truth!"

The Rabbi groaned; then, grimly, " Last as first
The truth speak I — in boyhood who began
Striving to live an angel, and, amerced

" For such presumption, die now hardly man.
What have I proved of life? To live, indeed,
That much I learned: but here lies Jochanan

" More luckless than stood David when, to speed
His fighting with the Philistine, they brought
Saul's harness forth: whereat, " Alack, I need

" " Armour to arm me, but have never fought
With sword and spear, nor tried to manage shield,
Proving arms' use, as well-trained warrior ought.

" " Only a sling and pebbles can I wield! "
So he: while I, contrariwise, " No trick
Of weapon helpful on the battle-field

" " Comes unfamiliar to my theoric:
But, bid me put in practice what I know,
Give me a sword — it stings like Moses' stick,

" " A serpent I let drop apace. " E'en so,
I, — able to comport me at each stage
Of human life as never here below

" Man played his part, — since mine the heritage
Of wisdom carried to that perfect pitch,
Ye rightly praise, — I, therefore, who, thus sage,

" Could sure act man triumphantly, enrich
Life's annals with example how I played
Lover, Bard, Soldier, Statist, — (all of which

" Parts in presentment failing, cries invade
The world's ear — " Ah, the Past, the pearl-gift thrown
To hogs, time's opportunity we made

" " So light of, only recognized when flown!
Had we been wise! " ) — in fine, I — wise enough, —
What profit brings me wisdom never shown

" Just when its showing would from each rebuff
Shelter weak virtue, threaten back to bounds
Encroaching vice, tread smooth each track too rough

" For youth's unsteady footstep, climb the rounds
Of life's long ladder, one by slippery one,
Yet make no stumble? Me hard fate confounds

" With that same crowd of wailers I outrun
By promising to teach another cry
Of more hilarious mood than theirs, the sun

" I look my last at is insulted by.
What cry, — ye ask? Give ear on every side!
Witness yon Lover! " How entrapped am I!

" " Methought, because a virgin's rose-lip vied
With ripe Khubbezleh's, needs must beauty mate
With meekness and discretion in a bride:

" " Bride she became to me who wail — too late —
Unwise I loved! " That's one cry. " Mind's my gift:
I might have loaded me with lore, full weight

" " Pressed down and running over at each rift
O' the brain-bag where the famished clung and fed.
I filled it with what rubbish! — would not sift

" " The wheat from chaff, sound grain from musty — shed
Poison abroad as oft as nutriment —
And sighing say but as my fellows said,

" " Unwise I learned! " That's two. " In dwarf's-play spent
Was giant's prowess: warrior all unversed
In war's right waging, I struck brand, was lent

" " For steel's fit service, on mere stone — and cursed
Alike the shocked limb and the shivered steel,
Seeing too late the blade's true use which erst

" " How was I blind to! My cry swells the peal —
Unwise I fought! " That's three. But wherefore waste
Breath on the wailings longer? Why reveal

" A root of bitterness whereof the taste
Is noisome to Humanity at large?
First we get Power, but Power absurdly placed

" In Folly's keeping, who resigns her charge
To Wisdom when all Power grows nothing worth:
Bones marrowless are mocked with helm and targe

" When, like your Master's, soon below the earth
With worms shall warfare only be. Farewell,
Children! I die a failure since my birth!"

" Not so!" arose a protest as, pell-mell,
They pattered from his chamber to the street,
Bent on a last resource. Our Targums tell

That such resource there is. Put case, there meet
The Nine Points of Perfection — rarest chance —
Within some saintly teacher whom the fleet

Years, in their blind implacable advance,
O'ertake before fit teaching born of these
Have magnified his scholars' countenance, —

If haply folk compassionating please
To render up — according to his store,
Each one — a portion of the life he sees

Hardly worth saving when 'tis set before
Earth's benefit should the Saint, Hakkadosh,
Favoured thereby, attain to full fourscore —

If such contribute (Scoffer, spare thy " Bosh!")
A year, a month, a day, an hour — to eke
Life out, — in him away the gift shall wash

That much of ill-spent time recorded, streak
The twilight of the so-assisted sage
With a new sunrise: truth, though strange to speak!

Quick to the doorway, then, where youth and age,
All Israel, thronging, waited for the last
News of the loved one. " 'Tis the final stage:

" Art's utmost done, the Rabbi's feet tread fast
The way of all flesh!" So announced that apt
Olive-branch Tsaddik: " Yet, O Brethren, cast

" No eye to earthward! Look where heaven has clapped
Morning's extinguisher — yon ray-shot robe
Of sun-threads — on the constellation mapped

" And mentioned by our Elders, — yea, from Job
Down to Satam, — as figuring forth — what?
Perpend a mystery! Ye call it Dob —

" " The Bear " : I trow, a wiser name than that
Were Aish — " The Bier " : a corpse those four stars hold,
Which — are not those Three Daughters weeping at,

" Banoth? I judge so: list while I unfold
The reason. As in twice twelve hours this Bier
Goes and returns, about the East-cone rolled,

" So may a setting luminary here
Be rescued from extinction, rolled anew
Upon its track of labour, strong and clear,

" About the Pole — that Salem, every Jew
Helps to build up when thus he saves some Saint
Ordained its architect. Ye grasp the clue

" To all ye seek? The Rabbi's lamp-flame faint
Sinks: would ye raise it? Lend then life from yours,
Spare each his oil-drop! Do I need acquaint

" The Chosen how self-sacrifice ensures
Ten-fold requital? — urge ye emulate
The fame of those Old Just Ones death procures

" Such praise for, that 'tis now men's sole debate
Which of the Ten, who volunteered at Rome
To die for glory to our Race, was great

" Beyond his fellows? Was it thou — the comb
Of iron carded, flesh from bone, away,
While thy lips sputtered through their bloody foam

" Without a stoppage (O brave Akiba!)
" Hear, Israel, our Lord God is One " ? Or thou,
Jischab? — who smiledst, burning, since there lay,

" Burning along with thee, our Law! I trow,
Such martyrdom might tax flesh to afford:
While that for which I make petition now,

" To what amounts it? Youngster, wilt thou hoard
Each minute of long years thou look'st to spend
In dalliance with thy spouse? Hast thou so soared,

" Singer of songs, all out of sight of friend
And teacher, warbling like a woodland bird,
There's left no Selah, 'twixt two psalms, to lend

" Our late-so-tuneful quirist? Thou, averred
The fighter born to plant our lion-flag
Once more on Zion's mount, — doth, all-unheard,

" My pleading fail to move thee? Toss some rag
Shall staunch our wound, some minute never missed
From swordsman's lustihood like thine! Wilt lag

" In liberal bestowment, show close fist
When open palm we look for, — thou, wide-known
For statecraft? whom, 'tis said, an if thou list,

" The Shah himself would seat beside his throne,
So valued were advice from thee" . . . But here
He stopped short: such a hubbub! Not alone

From those addressed, but, far as well as near,
The crowd broke into clamour: " Mine, mine, mine —
Lop from my life the excrescence, never fear!

" At me thou lookedst, markedst me! Assign
To me that privilege of granting life —
Mine, mine!" Then he: " Be patient! I combine

" The needful portions only, wage no strife
With Nature's law nor seek to lengthen out
The Rabbi's day unduly. 'Tis the knife

" I stop, — would cut its thread too short. About
As much as helps life last the proper term,
The appointed Fourscore, — that I crave, and scout

" A too-prolonged existence. Let the worm
Change at fit season to the butterfly!
And here a story strikes me, to confirm

" This judgement. Of our worthies, none ranks high
As Perida who kept the famous school:
None rivalled him in patience: none! For why?

" In lecturing it was his constant rule,
Whatever he expounded, to repeat
— Ay, and keep on repeating, lest some fool

" Should fail to understand him fully — (feat
Unparalleled, Uzzean!) — do ye mark? —
Five hundred times! So might he entrance beat

" For knowledge into howsoever dark
And dense the brain-pan. Yet it happed, at close
Of one especial lecture, not one spark

" Of light was found to have illumed the rows
Of pupils round their pedagogue. " What, still
Impenetrable to me? Then — here goes! "

" And for a second time he sets the rill
Of knowledge running, and five hundred times
More re-repeats the matter — and gains nil .

" Out broke a voice from heaven: " Thy patience climbs
Even thus high. Choose! Wilt thou, rather, quick
Ascend to bliss — or, since thy zeal sublimes

" " Such drudgery, will thy back still bear its crick,
Bent o'er thy class, — thy voice drone spite of drouth, —
Five hundred years more at thy desk wilt stick? "

" " To heaven with me! " was in the good man's mouth,
When all his scholars, — cruel-kind were they! —
Stopped utterance, from East, West, North and South,

" Rending the welkin with their shout of " Nay —
No heaven as yet for our instructor! Grant
Five hundred years on earth for Perida! "

" And so long did he keep instructing! Want
Our Master no such misery! I but take
Three months of life marital. Ministrant

" Be thou of so much, Poet! Bold I make,
Swordsman, with thy frank offer! — and conclude,
Statist, with thine! One year, — ye will not shake

" My purpose to accept no more. So rude?
The very boys and girls, forsooth, must press
And proffer their addition? Thanks! The mood

" Is laudable, but I reject, no less,
One month, week, day of life more. Leave my gown,
Ye overbold ones! Your life's gift, you guess,

" Were good as any? Rudesby, get thee down!
Set my feet free, or fear my staff! Farewell,
Seniors and saviours, sharers of renown

" With Jochanan henceforward!" Straightway fell
Sleep on the sufferer; who awoke in health,
Hale everyway, so potent was the spell.

O the rare Spring-time! Who is he by stealth
Approaches Jochanan? — embowered that sits
Under his vine and figtree 'mid the wealth

Of garden-sights and sounds, since intermits
Never the turtle's coo, nor stays nor stints
The rose her smell. In homage that befits

The musing Master, Tsaddik, see, imprints
A kiss on the extended foot, low bends
Forehead to earth, then, all-obsequious, hints

" What if it should be time? A period ends —
That of the Lover's gift — his quarter-year
Of lustihood: 'tis just thou make amends,

" Return that loan with usury: so, here
Come I, of thy Disciples delegate,
Claiming our lesson from thee. Make appear

" Thy profit from experience! Plainly state
How men should Love!" Thus he: and to him thus
The Rabbi: " Love, ye call it? — rather, Hate!

" What wouldst thou? Is it needful I discuss
Wherefore new sweet wine, poured in bottles caked
With old strong wine's deposit, offers us

" Spoilt liquor we recoil from, thirst-unslaked?
Like earth-smoke from a crevice, out there wound
Languors and yearnings: not a sense but ached

" Weighed on by fancied form and feature, sound
Of silver word and sight of sunny smile:
No beckoning of a flower-branch, no profound

" Purple of noon-oppression, no light wile
O' the West wind, but transformed itself till — brief —
Before me stood the fantasy ye style

" Youth's love, the joy that shall not come to grief,
Born to endure, eternal, unimpaired
By custom the accloyer, time the thief.

" Had Age's hard cold knowledge only spared
That ignorance of Youth! But now the dream,
Fresh as from Paradise, alighting fared

" As fares the pigeon, finding what may seem
Her nest's safe hollow holds a snake inside
Coiled to enclasp her. See, Eve stands supreme

" In youth and beauty! Take her for thy bride!
What Youth deemed crystal, Age finds out was dew
Morn set a-sparkle, but which noon quick dried

" While Youth bent gazing at its red and blue
Supposed perennial, — never dreamed the sun
Which kindled the display would quench it too.

" Graces of shape and colour — every one
With its appointed period of decay
When ripe to purpose! " Still, these dead and done,

" " Survives the woman-nature — the soft sway
Of undefinable omnipotence
O'er our strong male-stuff, we of Adam's clay. "

" Ay, if my physics taught not why and whence
The attraction! Am I like the simple steer
Who, from his pasture lured inside the fence

" Where yoke and goad await him, holds that mere
Kindliness prompts extension of the hand
Hollowed for barley, which drew near and near

" His nose — in proof that, of the horned band,
The farmer best affected him? Beside,
Steer, since his calfhood, got to understand

" Farmers a many in the world so wide
Were ready with a handful just as choice
Or choicer — maize and cummin, treats untried.

" Shall I wed wife, and all my days rejoice
I gained the peacock? 'Las me, round I look,
And lo — " With me thou wouldst have blamed no voice

" " Like hers that daily deafens like a rook:
I am the phoenix! " — " I, the lark, the dove,
— The owl, " for aught knows he who blindly took

" Peacock for partner, while the vale, the grove,
The plain held bird-mates in abundance. There!
Youth, try fresh capture! Age has found out Love

" Long ago. War seems better worth man's care.
But leave me! Disappointment finds a balm
Haply in slumber." " This first step o' the stair

" To knowledge fails me, but the victor's palm
Lies on the next to tempt him overleap
A stumbling-block. Experienced, gather calm,

" Thou excellence of Judah, cured by sleep
Which ushers in the Warrior, to replace
The Lover! At due season I shall reap

" Fruit of my planting!" So, with lengthened face,
Departed Tsaddik: and three moons more waxed
And waned, and not until the Summer-space

Waned likewise, any second visit taxed
The Rabbi's patience. But at three months' end,
Behold, supine beneath a rock, relaxed

The sage lay musing till the noon should spend
Its ardour. Up comes Tsaddik, who but he,
With " Master, may I warn thee, nor offend,

" That time comes round again? We look to see
Sprout from the old branch — not the youngling twig —
But fruit of sycamine: deliver me,

" To share among my fellows, some plump fig,
Juicy as seedy! That same man of war,
Who, with a scantling of his store, made big

" Thy starveling nature, caused thee, safe from scar,
To share his gains by long acquaintanceship
With bump and bruise and all the knocks that are

" Of battle dowry, — he bids loose thy lip,
Explain the good of battle! Since thou know'st
Let us know likewise! Fast the moments slip,

" More need that we improve them!" — " Ay, we boast,
We warriors in our youth, that with the sword
Man goes the swiftliest to the uttermost —

" Takes the straight way through lands yet unexplored
To absolute Right and Good, — may so obtain
God's glory and man's weal too long ignored,

" Too late attained by preachments all in vain —
The passive process. Knots get tangled worse
By toying with: does cut cord close again?

" Moreover there is blessing in the curse
Peace-praisers call war. What so sure evolves
All the capacities of soul, proves nurse

" Of that self-sacrifice in men which solves
The riddle — Wherein differs Man from beast?
Foxes boast cleverness and courage wolves:

" Nowhere but in mankind is found the least
Touch of an impulse " To our fellows — good
I' the highest! — not diminished but increased

" " By the condition plainly understood
— Such good shall be attained at price of hurt
I' the highest to ourselves! " Fine sparks, that brood

" Confusedly in Man, 'tis war bids spurt
Forth into flame: as fires the meteor-mass,
Whereof no particle but holds inert

" Some seed of light and heat, however crass
The enclosure, yet avails not to discharge
Its radiant birth before there come to pass

" Some push external, — strong to set at large
Those dormant fire-seeds, whirl them in a trice
Through heaven and light up earth from marge to marge:

" Since force by motion makes — what erst was ice —
Crash into fervency and so expire,
Because some Djinn has hit on a device

" For proving the full prettiness of fire!
Ay, thus we prattle — young: but old — why, first,
Where's that same Right and Good — (the wise inquire)

" So absolute, it warrants the outburst
Of blood, tears, all war's woeful consequence,
That comes of the fine flaring? Which plague cursed

" The more your benefited Man — offence,
Or what suppressed the offender? Say it did —
Show us the evil cured by violence,

" Submission cures not also! Lift the lid
From the maturing crucible, we find
Its slow sure coaxing-out of virtue, hid

" In that same meteor-mass, hath uncombined
Those particles and, yielding for result
Gold, not mere flame, by so much leaves behind

" The heroic product. E'en the simple cult
Of Edom's children wisely bids them turn
Cheek to the smiter with " Sic Jesus vult . "

" Say there's a tyrant by whose death we earn
Freedom, and justify a war to wage:
Good! — were we only able to discern

" Exactly how to reach and catch and cage
Him only and no innocent beside!
Whereas the folk whereon war wreaks its rage

" — How shared they his ill-doing? Far and wide
The victims of our warfare strew the plain,
Ten thousand dead, whereof not one but died

" In faith that vassals owed their suzerain
Life: therefore each paid tribute, — honest soul, —
To that same Right and Good ourselves are fain

" To call exclusively our end. From bole
(Since ye accept in me a sycamine)
Pluck, eat, digest a fable — yea, the sole

" Fig I afford you! " Dost thou dwarf my vine? "
(So did a certain husbandman address
The tree which faced his field), " Receive condign

" " Punishment, prompt removal by the stress
Of axe I forthwith lay unto thy root! "
Long did he hack and hew, the root no less

" As long defied him, for its tough strings shoot
As deep down as the boughs above aspire:
All that he did was — shake to the tree's foot

" Leafage and fruitage, things we most require
For shadow and refreshment: which good deed
Thoroughly done, behold the axe-haft tires

" His hand, and he desisting leaves unfreed
The vine he hacked and hewed for. Comes a frost,
One natural night's work, and there's little need

" Of hacking, hewing: lo, the tree's a ghost!
Perished it stares, black death from topmost bough
To farthest-reaching fibre! Shall I boast

" My rough work, — warfare, — helped more? Loving, now —
That, by comparison, seems wiser, since
The loving fool was able to avow

" He could effect his purpose, just evince
Love's willingness, — once 'ware of what she lacked,
His loved one, — to go work for that, nor wince

" At self-expenditure: he neither hacked
Nor hewed, but when the lady of his field
Required defence because the sun attacked,

" He, failing to obtain a fitter shield,
Would interpose his body, and so blaze,
Blest in the burning. Ah, were mine to wield

" The intellectual weapon — poet-lays, —
How preferably had I sung one song
Which . . . but my sadness sinks me: go your ways!

" I sleep out disappointment." " Come along,
Never lose heart! There's still as much again
Of our bestowment left to right the wrong

" Done by its earlier moiety — explain
Wherefore, who may! The Poet's mood comes next.
Was he not wishful the poetic vein

" Should pulse within him? Jochanan, thou reck'st
Little of what a generous flood shall soon
Float thy clogged spirit free and unperplexed

" Above dry dubitation! Song's the boon
Shall make amends for my untoward mistake
That Joshua-like thou couldst bid sun and moon —

" Fighter and Lover, — which for most men make
All they descry in heaven, — stand both stock-still
And lend assistance. Poet shalt thou wake!"

Autumn brings Tsaddik. " Ay, there speeds the rill
Loaded with leaves: a scowling sky, beside:
The wind makes olive-trees up yonder hill

" Whiten and shudder — symptoms far and wide
Of gleaning-time's approach; and glean good store
May I presume to trust we shall, thou tried

" And ripe experimenter! Three months more
Have ministered to growth of Song: that graft
Into thy sterile stock has found at core

" Moisture, I warrant, hitherto unquaffed
By boughs, however florid, wanting sap
Of prose-experience which provides the draught

" Which song-sprouts, wanting, wither: vain we tap
A youngling stem all green and immature:
Experience must secrete the stuff, our hap

" Will be to quench Man's thirst with, glad and sure
That fancy wells up through corrective fact:
Missing which test of truth, though flowers allure

" The goodman's eye with promise, soon the pact
Is broken, and 'tis flowers, — mere words, — he finds
When things, — that's fruit, — he looked for. Well, once cracked

" The nut, how glad my tooth the kernel grinds!
Song may henceforth boast substance! Therefore, hail
Proser and poet, perfect in both kinds!

" Thou from whose eye hath dropped the envious scale
Which hides the truth of things and substitutes
Deceptive show, unaided optics fail

" To transpierce, — hast entrusted to the lute's
Soft but sure guardianship some unrevealed
Secret shall lift mankind above the brutes

" As only knowledge can?" " A fount unsealed"
(Sighed Jochanan) " should seek the heaven in leaps
To die in dew-gems — not find death, congealed

" By contact with the cavern's nether deeps,
Earth's secretest foundation where, enswathed
In dark and fear, primeval mystery sleeps —

" Petrific fount wherein my fancies bathed
And straight turned ice. My dreams of good and fair
In soaring upwards had dissolved, unscathed

" By any influence of the kindly air,
Singing, as each took flight, The Future — that's
Our destination, mists turn rainbows there,

" Which sink to fog, confounded in the flats
O' the Present! Day's the song-time for the lark,
Night for her music boasts but owls and bats.

" And what's the Past but night — the deep and dark
Ice-spring I speak of, corpse-thicked with its drowned
Dead fancies which no sooner touched the mark

" They aimed at — fact — than all at once they found
Their film-wings freeze, henceforth unfit to reach
And roll in aether, revel — robed and crowned

" As truths, confirmed by falsehood all and each —
Sovereign and absolute and ultimate!
Up with them, skyward, Youth, ere Age impeach

" Thy least of promises to reinstate
Adam in Eden! Sing on, ever sing,
Chirp till thou burst! — the fool cicada's fate,

" Who holds that after Summer next comes Spring,
Than Summer's self sun-warmed, spice-scented more.
Fighting was better! There, no fancy-fling

" Pitches you past the point was reached of yore
By Samsons, Abners, Joabs, Judases,
The mighty men of valour who, before

" Our little day, did wonders none profess
To doubt were fable and not fact, so trust
By fancy-flights to emulate much less.

" Were I a Statesman, now! Why, that were just
To pinnacle my soul, mankind above,
A-top the universe: no vulgar lust

" To gratify — fame, greed, at this remove
Looked down upon so far — or overlooked
So largely, rather — that mine eye should rove

" World-wide and rummage earth, the many-nooked,
Yet find no unit of the human flock
Caught straying but straight comes back hooked and crooked

" By the strong shepherd who, from out his stock
Of aids proceeds to treat each ailing fleece,
Here stimulate to growth, curtail and dock

" There, baldness or excrescence, — that, with grease,
This, with up-grubbing of the bristly patch
Born of the tick-bite. How supreme a peace

" Steals o'er the Statist, — while, in wit, a match
For shrewd Ahithophel, in wisdom . . . well,
His name escapes me — somebody, at watch

" And ward, the fellow of Ahithophel
In guidance of the Chosen!" — at which word
Eyes closed and fast asleep the Rabbi fell.

" Cold weather!" shivered Tsaddik. " Yet the hoard
Of the sagacious ant shows garnered grain,
Ever abundant most when fields afford

" Least pasture, and alike disgrace the plain
Tall tree and lowly shrub. 'Tis so with us
Mortals: our age stores wealth ye seek in vain

" While busy youth culls just what we discuss
At leisure in the last days: and the last
Truly are these for Jochanan, whom thus

" I make one more appeal to! Thine amassed
Experience, now or never, let escape
Some portion of! For I perceive aghast

" The end approaches, while they jeer and jape,
These sons of Shimei: " Justify your boast!
What have ye gained from Death by twelve months' rape? "

" Statesman, what cure hast thou for — least and most —
Popular grievances? What nostrum, say,
Will make the Rich and Poor, expertly dosed,

" Forget disparity, bid each go gay
That, with his bauble, — with his burden, this?
Propose an alkahest shall melt away

" Men's lacquer, show by prompt analysis
Which is the metal, which the make-believe,
So that no longer brass shall find, gold miss

" Coinage and currency? Make haste, retrieve
The precious moments, Master!" Whereunto
There snarls an " Ever laughing in thy sleeve,

" Pert Tsaddik? Youth indeed sees plain a clue
To guide man where life's wood is intricate:
How shall he fail to thrid its thickest through

" When every oak-trunk takes the eye? Elate
He goes from bole to brushwood, plunging finds —
Smothered in briars — that the small's the great!

" All men are men: I would all minds were minds!
Whereas 'tis just the many's mindless mass
That most needs helping: labourers and hinds

" We legislate for — not the cultured class
Which law-makes for itself nor needs the whip
And bridle, — proper help for mule and ass,

" Did the brutes know! In vain our statesmanship
Strives at contenting the rough multitude:
Still the ox cries " 'Tis me thou shouldst equip

" " With equine trappings! " or, in humbler mood,
" Cribful of corn for me! and, as for work —
Adequate rumination o'er my food! "

" Better remain a Poet! Needs it irk
Such an one if light, kindled in his sphere,
Fail to transfuse the Mizraim cold and murk

" Round about Goshen? Though light disappear,
Shut inside, — temporary ignorance
Got outside of, lo, light emerging clear

" Shows each astonished starer the expanse
Of heaven made bright with knowledge! That's the way,
The only way — I see it at a glance —

" To legislate for earth! As poet. . . . Stay!
What is . . . I would that . . . were it . . . I had been . . .
O sudden change, as if my arid clay

" Burst into bloom! . . ." " A change indeed, I ween,
And change the last!" sighed Tsaddik as he kissed
The closing eyelids. " Just as those serene

" Princes of Night apprised me! Our acquist
Of life is spent, since corners only four
Hath Aisch, and each in turn was made desist

" In passage round the Pole (O Mishna's lore —
Little it profits here!) by strenuous tug
Of friends who eked out thus to full fourscore

" The Rabbi's years. I see each shoulder shrug!
What have we gained? Away the Bier may roll!
Tomorrow, when the Master's grave is dug,

" In with his body I may pitch the scroll
I hoped to glorify with, text and gloss,
My Science of Man's Life: one blank's the whole!

" Love, war, song, statesmanship — no gain, all loss,
The stars' bestowment! We on our return
Tomorrow merely find — not gold but dross,

" The body not the soul. Come, friends, we learn
At least thus much by our experiment —
That — that . . . well, find what, whom it may concern!"

But next day through the city rumours went
Of a new persecution; so, they fled
All Israel, each man, — this time, — from his tent,

Tsaddik among the foremost. When, the dread
Subsiding, Israel ventured back again
Some three months after, to the cave they sped

Where lay the Sage, — a reverential train!
Tsaddik first enters. " What is this I view?
The Rabbi still alive? No stars remain

" Of Aisch to stop within their courses. True,
I mind me, certain gamesome boys must urge
Their offerings on me: can it be — one threw

" Life at him and it stuck? There needs the scourge
To teach that urchin manners! Prithee, grant
Forgiveness if we pretermit thy dirge

" Just to explain no friend was ministrant,
This time, of life to thee! Some jackanapes,
I gather, has presumed to foist his scant

" Scurvy unripe existence — wilding grapes
Grass-green and sorrel-sour — on that grand wine,
Mighty as mellow, which, so fancy shapes

" May fitly image forth this life of thine
Fed on the last low fattening lees — condensed
Elixir, no milk-mildness of the vine!

" Rightly with Tsaddik wert thou now incensed
Had he been witting of the mischief wrought
When, for elixir, verjuice he dispensed!"

And slowly woke, — like Shushan's flower besought
By over-curious handling to unloose
The curtained secrecy wherein she thought

Her captive bee, 'mid store of sweets to choose,
Would loll, in gold pavilioned lie unteased,
Sucking on, sated never, — whose, O whose

Might seem that countenance, uplift, all eased
Of old distraction and bewilderment,
Absurdly happy? " How ye have appeased

" The strife within me, bred this whole content,
This utter acquiescence in my past,
Present and future life, — by whom was lent

" The power to work this miracle at last, —
Exceeds my guess. Though — ignorance confirmed
By knowledge sounds like paradox, I cast

" Vainly about to tell you — fitlier termed —
Of calm struck by encountering opposites,
Each nullifying either! Henceforth wormed

" From out my heart is every snake that bites
The dove that else would brood there: doubt, which kills
With hiss of " What if sorrows end delights? "

" Fear which stings ease with " Work the Master wills! "
Experience which coils round and strangles quick
Each hope with " Ask the Past if hoping skills

" " To work accomplishment, or proves a trick
Wiling thee to endeavour! Strive, fool, stop
Nowise, so live, so die — that's law! why kick

" " Against the pricks? " All out-wormed! Slumber, drop
Thy films once more and veil the bliss within!
Experience strangle hope? Hope waves a-top

" Her wings triumphant! Come what will, I win,
Whoever loses! Every dream's assured
Of soberest fulfilment. Where's a sin

" Except in doubting that the light, which lured
The unwary into darkness, meant no wrong
Had I but marched on bold, nor paused immured

" By mists I should have pressed through, passed along
My way henceforth rejoicing? Not the boy's
Passionate impulse he conceits so strong,

" Which, at first touch, truth, bubble-like, destroys, —
Not the man's slow conviction " Vanity
Of vanities — alike my griefs and joys! "

" Ice! — thawed (look up) each bird, each insect by —
(Look round) by all the plants that break in bloom,
(Look down) by every dead friend's memory

" That smiles " Am I the dust within my tomb? "
Not either, but both these — amalgam rare —
Mix in a product, not from Nature's womb,

" But stuff which He the Operant — who shall dare
Describe His operation? — strikes alive
And thaumaturgic. I nor know nor care

" How from this tohu-bohu — hopes which dive,
And fears which soar — faith, ruined through and through
By doubt, and doubt, faith treads to dust — revive

" In some surprising sort, — as see, they do! —
Not merely foes no longer but fast friends.
What does it mean unless — O strange and new

" Discovery! — this life proves a wine-press — blends
Evil and good, both fruits of Paradise,
Into a novel drink which — who intends

" To quaff, must bear a brain for ecstasies
Attempered, not this all-inadequate
Organ which, quivering within me, dies

" — Nay, lives! — what, how, — too soon, or else too late —
I was — I am . . ." ( " He babbleth!" Tsaddik mused)
" O Thou Almighty who canst reinstate

" Truths in their primal clarity, confused
By man's perception, which is man's and made
To suit his service, — how, once disabused

" Of reason which sees light half shine half shade,
Because of flesh, the medium that adjusts
Purity to his visuals, both an aid

" And hindrance, — how to eyes earth's air encrusts,
When purged and perfect to receive truth's beam
Pouring itself on the new sense it trusts

" With all its plenitude of power, — how seem
The intricacies now, of shade and shine,
Oppugnant natures — Right and Wrong, we deem

" Irreconcilable? O eyes of mine,
Freed now of imperfection, ye avail
To see the whole sight, nor may uncombine

" Henceforth what, erst divided, caused you quail —
So huge the chasm between the false and true,
The dream and the reality! All hail,

" Day of my soul's deliverance — day the new,
The never-ending! What though every shape
Whereon I wreaked my yearning to pursue

" Even to success each semblance of escape
From my own bounded self to some all-fair
All-wise external fancy, proved a rape

" Like that old giant's, feigned of fools — on air,
Not solid flesh? How otherwise? To love —
That lesson was to learn not here — but there —

" On earth, not here! 'Tis there we learn, — there prove
Our parts upon the stuff we needs must spoil,
Striving at mastery, there bend above

" The spoiled clay potsherds, many a year of toil
Attests the potter tried his hand upon,
Till sudden he arose, wiped free from soil

" His hand, cried " So much for attempt — anon
Performance! Taught to mould the living vase,
What matter the cracked pitchers dead and gone? "

" Could I impart and could thy mind embrace
The secret, Tsaddik!" " Secret none to me!"
Quoth Tsaddik, as the glory on the face

Of Jochanan was quenched. " The truth I see
Of what that excellence of Judah wrote,
Doughty Halaphta. This a case must be

" Wherein, though the last breath have passed the throat,
So that " The man is dead " we may pronounce,
Yet is the Ruach — (thus do we denote

" The imparted Spirit) — in no haste to bounce
From its entrusted Body, — some three days
Lingers ere it relinquish to the pounce

" Of hawk-clawed Death his victim. Further says
Halaphta, " Instances have been, and yet
Again may be, when saints, whose earthly ways

" " Tend to perfection, very nearly get
To heaven while still on earth: and, as a fine
Interval shows where waters pure have met

" " Waves brackish, in a mixture, sweet with brine,
That's neither sea nor river but a taste
Of both — so meet the earthly and divine

" " And each is either. " Thus I hold him graced —
Dying on earth, half inside and half out,
Wholly in heaven, who knows? My mind embraced

" Thy secret, Jochanan, how dare I doubt?
Follow thy Ruach, let earth, all it can,
Keep of the leavings!" Thus was brought about

The sepulture of Rabbi Jochanan:
Thou hast him, — sinner-saint, live-dead, boy-man, —
Schiphaz, on Bendimir, in Farzistan!