RABBI BEN EZRA. ΙΟΙ So, take and use Thy work! Amend what flaws may lurk, What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim ! My times be in Thy hand! Perfect the cup as planned! Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same! ROBERT BROWNING. HY should a man raise stone and wood Why should he fear the brotherhood Of all things from on high? Why should a man not raise his form As shelterless and free As stands in sunshine or in storm Or if we thus, as creatures frail, Let us at least a dwelling choose, THE TENT. From parching heat and noxious dews The Fathers of our mortal race, While still remembrance nursed Traditions of the glorious place Whence Adam fled accursed, Rested in tents, as best became Children, whose mother earth Had overspread with sinful shame The beauty of her birth. In cold they sought the sheltered nook, In heat the airy shade, And oft their casual home forsook The morrow it was made; Diverging many separate roads, They wandered, fancy-driven, Nor thought of other fixed abodes Than Paradise or Heaven. And while this holy sense remained, 'Mid easy shepherd cares, 103 In tents they often entertained The angels unawares: And to their spirits' fervid gaze The myst'ry was revealed, How the world's wound in future days Thus we, so late and far a link Of generation's chain, Delight to dwell in tents and think The old world young again; With Faith as wide and Thought as narrow Gay-chirping by the door. The Tent! how easily it stands, Almost as if it rose Spontaneous from the green or sand, Express for our repose: Or, rather, it is we who plant This root, where'er we roam, And hold, and can to others grant, THE TENT. Make the divan-the carpets spread, Rest, weary heart! rest, weary head! The yellow desert glimm'ring through The subtle veil of beams. We all have much we would forget- And placid Hope, instead, shall set By her shall view unfurled Hid in the Eastern world. To slavish tyrannies their term Of terror she foretells; She brings to bloom the faith whose germ In Islam deeply dwells; Accomplishing each mighty birth That shall one day be born 105 |