OH, harp of Judah! wake again! Can no one deftly touch thy strings To scatter far the sacred strain Which from divinest patience springs! Have all the strife-sown troublous years No joys for happy song to cast? Can love distil no hope from tears, Or steal no beauty from the past? Has music lost its spell and power To summon hopes that only rest? Endowed with truths, our lasting dower, That mock the ages' wear and test; Can no heart-stirring melody Imbued with light and touched with fire, Flow from a nation proud and free Whose past must urge them to aspire? Reproach, an ignominious sea, Can follow in our wake no more; The poisoned waves of calumny Are washed away from Freedom's shore. The justice of a nobler age Has reached and raised our scattered race; Our history shows a fairer page, Our future wears a brighter face. The rooted weeds of narrow thought Which closely cling, or idly spread, Which ignorance has sown and wrought, Are crushed and buried with the dead. A loftier sense of heavenly things, A wider view of human life Have fashioned tolerance: which brings Its own repose to cast off strife. Beyond man's vain imaginings, Is Israel's faith that never dies, The boon of slaves—the pride of Kings— Its meanings make the nations wise, And thro' the mists of ages gone, Its God-stamped visions still appear As in the Bible's earliest dawn, Supremely true, divinely clear! And who asserts that Judah's claim To any chosen land is o'er? When all the earth contains her fame That spreads and widens evermore; The truths that sanctify her creed Shall scatter hopes where'er they shine, Until all men shall feel the need Of her own unity divine. So wake, my harp, my fingers press Thy rust-worn strings, while fancy longs To dower with melodiousness, The burden of unuttered songs; My faltering touch may reach in vain The music of my sacred themes, Still Truth may charm the feeble strain And lend its sweetness to my dreams! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SANDALPHON by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW CUPID MISTAKEN by MATTHEW PRIOR TO A SQUIRREL AT KYLE-NA-NO by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS SUMMER NIGHT, RIVERSIDE by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS BOB CRUIKSHANKS by ALEXANDER ANDERSON EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 15. RATHER DEEDS THAN WORDS by PHILIP AYRES POLYHYMNIA: SONNET TO LADY FALKLAND UPON HER GOING TO INTO IRELAND by WILLIAM BASSE |