Prepare! your festal rites prepare! Let your triumphs rend the air! Idol gods shall reign no more;
We the living God adore!
Let heathen hosts on human helps repose, Since Israel's God has routed Israel's foes.
Let remotest nations know Proud Goliath's overthrow. Fallen, Philistia, is thy trust; Dagon mingles with the dust!
Who fears the Lord of Glory need not fear The brazen armor or the lifted spear.
See, the routed squadrons fly!
Hark! their clamors rend the sky!
Blood and carnage stain the field!
See! the vanquished nations yield!
Dismay and terror fill the frightened land,
While conquering David routs the trembling band.
Lo, upon the tented field,
Royal Saul has thousands killed!
Lo, upon th'ensanguined plain,
David has ten thousand slain!
Let mighty Saul his vanquished thousands tell, While tenfold triumphs David's victories swell!
SONG OF VICTORY FOR THE DEATH OF GOLIATH
Strike with joy the wild harp's string,
God, O Israel, is your King!
We have slain our deadliest foe; David's arm hath laid him low.
Saul hath oft his thousands slain, His trophies have bedecked the plain; But David's tens of thousands lie On fields of battle, mounted high.
Sound the trumpet, strike the string, Loud let the song of victory ring; Wreathe with glory David's brow,- He hath laid Goliath low.
Mark him on yon crimson plain; He is conquered, he is slain; He who lately rose so high,- Scoffed at man, and braved the sky.
Strike with joy the wild harp's string, God, O Israel, is your King!
We have slain our deadliest foe; David's arm hath laid him low.
THE MEETING OF DAVID AND JONATHAN
All day the battle raged. Ere eventide Came Abner to the tent of Saul, and cried: "Would'st thou this eve, O king, behold the boy Whose single arm turned Israel's grief to joy?" "Yea," spake the king. So Abner bowed and went Forth to the sunlight from the shadowy tent; And on his spear leaned Jonathan to greet, With Saul, the coming of victorious feet.
A little space was silence, while the king Bowed his huge forehead black and pondering; But Jonathan, with eager eyes, afire
Because of this great deed, in strong desire
Gazed at the tent-door. Then a sound was heard Of one who swiftly ran, yet scarcely stirred The withered grass on the parched sward without: And far away thundered the people's shout.
The curtain rose: in poured the ruddy sun Sphering a slender stripling, dim and dun Amid that glory, like an olive-tree High on a hilltop you can hardly see For all the fire behind it. Round his hair, Flaming like gold, God set the golden glare— A coronal whereof the radiance smote Saul's eyes; and in the centre, like a mote, Swam the sweet boy's face, marvellously wan With wonder and with awe for thinking on
The miracle his sling and stone had wrought; Since now the deed was grown a thing for thought To feed on, much he pondered how the Lord Had stayed him, trusting not to spear or sword. Yea, in his hand the hideous bulk he swung, With shattered forehead, and with stiffening tongue Thrust through those spasm-tortured lips of death, Seemed like a shape of dreams that vanisheth When we awake, and lo, the morn is new O'er field and forest in the birth of dew.
The curtain fell behind him. Then he stood In twilight at the knees of Saul, whose mood Was troubled. Next he knelt, and laid the head, Tawny with tangled hair, with death-drops red, Prone neath the monarch's stool; then raised his eyes.
Like stars forth-leaning from the western skies That still hold daylight, wonderful and dim, They caught the souls of those that gazed at him. Saul loved him: but in Jonathan was stirred More love than Saul's soul held; yet not one word As yet was spoken. Then the monarch cried, "Whose son art thou, thou young man?" He re- plied,
"I am thy servant Jesse's son, who dwell
At Bethlehem."-As some still mountain well
Is silvered on its surface by the slow Arising of the full moon orbed and low, From star-set peaks impendent, so the tone Of that melodious voice, thrilling alone
Through the tent's stillness, changed the yearning
Within the breast of Jonathan, and sleep
Fell from his soul. A man by love new-made, His every hope upon the heart was laid Of Jesse's son. Then, as he bent and burned, The eyes of David on his eyes were turned; And in that moment their twin lives became The single splendor of one fiery flame,
Shooting from sundered brands to blend the might Of married fires, and leap aloft with light.
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
Let the voice of the mourner be heard on the mountain,
And woe breathe her sigh over Besor's blue wave; Upon Gilboa's hill there is opened a fountain,
And its fast-flowing stream is the blood of the brave!
Oh! dry be that hill from the rains of the morning, On its brow may no dew of the evening fall, But the warriors of Israel, from conquest returning, View herbless and withered the death-place of
From the borders of Judah let gladness be banished, Ye maidens of Israel, be deep in your woe;
For the pride of the mighty in battle is vanished,
The chief of the sword, and the lord of the bow.
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