Читать книгу The Death of Saul and other Eisteddfod Prize Poems and Miscellaneous Verses - J. C. Manning - Страница 9

Brave is the heart that beats with yearning throb

Tow'rds highest hopes, when, wandering in the vale,

Some snowy Alp gleams forth with flashing crown

Of golden glory in the morning light.

Brave is the heart that lovingly expands

And longs the far-off splendour to embrace.

Thus yearned the heart of Saul, when from his flocks

The Prophet led him forth, and, pointing up

Tow'rds Israel's crown, exclaimed: "See what the Lord

Hath done for thee!" But Saul upon the throne

Grew sorely dazed. Though brave the heart, the brain

Swam in an ecstasy of wildering light—

A helmless boat upon a troubled sea.

Men nursed in gloom can rarely brook the sun;

And many a life to sombre paths inured

The sunshine of Prosperity hath quenched,

As dewdrops glistening on the lowly sward

Like priceless jewels ere the morning breaks,

Melt into space when light and heat abound,

As though they ne'er had been. Relentless fate!

This ruthless law the world's wide ways hath fringed

With wreckage of a host of peerless lives;

And Saul is numbered 'mongst the broken drift.

Saul, though the Lord's anointed, saw not God:

But—curse of life! ingratitude prevailed.

His faith waxed weak as days of trial came:

And when, deserted by his teeming hosts

At Gilgal, he the Prophet's priestly right

In faithless haste assumed, the Prophet cried

"The Lord hath said no son of thine shall reign

O'er Israel!" (c) Yet, heedless of the voice Of warning which a patient God vouchsafed, With disobedience lurking in his heart, He strove to shield the King of Amalek— He whom the Lord commanded him to kill— Seizing his flocks and herds for selfish gain Beneath the garb of sacrificial faith— Sin so distasteful to the Lord that Saul Sat in the dark displeasure of his God. (d) And out from this displeasure, like the dawn From dusky night, the youthful David sprang— The Lord's anointed, yea, the Lord's beloved: Sweet Bard of Bethlehem! whose harp divine, Tuned to the throbbings of a guileless heart, Soothed the dark spirit of the sinful King, And woke his life to light and hope again, (e) But ah! the sling and stone his envy roused, And envy hate begat. 'Tis ever so: The honest fealty of a noble soul To all that's brave, and true, and good in life, Will meet malicious hindrance. So the King This brave young bard and warrior of the Lord In ruthless persecution sought to kill. Twice, with a true nobility of heart Which to the noble heart alone belongs, The slayer of Goliath stayed his hand When Saul lay at his mercy. "Take thy life; "Thou art the Lord's anointed, sinful, though, "And faithless to the truth as shifting sand!" Thus David spake, and went his weary way, An exile from the land he loved so well. So Saul had steeled his heart and set his face Against the living God, and thus he lay Beneath the great Jehovah's awful ban.

Episode the Third