GO forth among this homeless race, This landless race that knows no place Or name or nation quite its own, And see their happy babes at play. Palace or Ghetto, rich or poor, As thick as birds about your door At morn some sunny Vermont May, Then think of Christ and these alone. Yet we deride, we jeer, we gibe To see their plenteous babes; we say "Behold the Jew and all his tribe." Yet Solomon upon his throne Was not more kingly crowned, More surely born to lord, to lead, To sow the land with Abram's seed, Because their babes are healthful born And welcomed as the welcome morn. Hear me this prophecy and heed, Except we cleanse us kirk and creed, Except we wash us word and deed, The Jew shall rule us—reign the Jew. And just because the Jew is true, Is true to nature, true to truth; Is clean, is chaste, as trustful Ruth, Who bore us David, Solomon— The Babe that far, first Christmas dawn. The nation, aye, the Christian race, Here fronts its Sybil, face to face, And I must say, say now to you, Whate'er the cost, of fortune, fame, The Christian is a thing of shame— Must say because I know it true, The better Christian is the Jew. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON SOME LINES OF LOPE DE VEGA by SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784) A REASONABLE AFFLICTION (1) by MATTHEW PRIOR SONNET: 116 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE BATTLE OF VIENNA by SEYMOUR GREEN WHEELER BENJAMIN |