BETWEEN the joustings and the wine I heard a voice descend: "Ye kneel and hail Me as divine; Therefore My land defend. The infidel has hold upon The cedarn slopes of Lebanon: The faithless rule and keep their stand In the gates of holy land. None of your paladins makes stir To stand and keep My sepulchre, Or bring My cities back to Me. Once wept I for Jerusalem: Now is she tenanted by them, That speak against My mystery." Between the viols and the wine A voice came to my ears: "Ye shall take back My Palestine Through many barriers: Ye shall attain, though many a thorn Be in your bodies driven, Through battle and strong suns and scorn, Unto the Rose of Heaven: Yea, that small seed-plot of My birth Ye shall possess once more, That strange most holy space of earth -- Put by your music and your mirth, And with your swords adore. The infidel has hold upon The cedarn slopes of Lebanon: The faithless rule and keep their stand In all the ports of holy land, And fierce unchristened kings are set Upon the sides of Olivet. Take back, O continent of Mine, Take back for Me My Palestine." Therefore, I saw the spears upon Acre and walled Ajalon: Therefore, I serve the Saracens, Whose hearts are not as Frankish men's, And captive am and slave therefore Unto this heathen emperor. Yet have I toiled to take again The little cities of His pain, To take the little cities striven, Dear seed-plots of the Rose of Heaven. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MY FAMILIAR DREAM by PAUL VERLAINE ON FINDING A FAN by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE DAFT DAYS by ROBERT FERGUSSON GRASS FINGERS by ANGELINA WELD GRIMKE THE TWO WIVES by WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT: SPRING by THOMAS NASHE A SONNET by JAMES KENNETH STEPHEN THE HIGHER PANTHEISM IN A NUTSHELL by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE |