Dear Bethlehem, the proud repose Of conscious worthiness is thine. Rest on. The Arab comes and goes, But farthest Saxon holds thy shrine More sacred in his stouter Christian hold Than England's heaped-up iron house of gold. Thy stony hill is heaven's stair; Thine every stone some storied gem. Oh, thou art fair and very fair, Thou holy, holy Bethlehem! Thy very dust more dear than dust of gold Against my glorious sunset waters rolled. And here did glean the lowly Ruth; Here strode her grandson, fierce and fair, Strode forth in all his kingly youth And tore the ravening she-bear. Here Rachel sleeps. Here David, thirsting, cried For just one drop from yonder trickling tide. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MONNA INNOMINATA, A SONNET OF SONNETS: 2 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI TIPPERARY: 3. AS THE INTERLINEARS MIGHT TAKE IT FROM XENOPHON by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 16. AL-KAHHAR by EDWIN ARNOLD EMPORIUM VERSUS NEW YORK, 1854 by JACOB BIGELOW PETITION (2) by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE |