Classic Poem

" Why dost thou stand there, Moses, dumb and awful?
The God thou hast left will curse thy senile sneer!
Wilt thou not answer me, grim man austere?
Speak, moody patriarch! Is thy silence lawful?
Thou dealst out justice; deal it to me here!

" Oh, saintly insensate mortal, unimpassioned,
I say to thee that Israel, gone astray,
Is forced thy brother's mandates to obey,
And he, all-guilty, with his palms has fashioned
A golden calf and worships it to-day!

" Thy nations bow before its glitter odious,
They scoff at thee and thine eternal trust,
And with degrading cries of mirth and lust
They hail it on soft lyres and lutes melodious,
Dancing around it to thy God's disgust! "

Then as I foamed upon him, breathless, haggard,
Moses the meek incredulously smiled,
And said: " Thou dreamest, woman most defiled!
By thee my faith fraternal is not staggered.
Go, go thy way, poor maniac beguiled!

" Thy soul with vagrant fancies thou enslavest.
Fare to the temple and thy God adore
On humble knees, and all His grace implore.
If yet thou canst, go, woman, for now thou ravest. "
And, gazing upon his tablets, spake no more.

*****

Then, in tumultuous, angered desperation,
Incensed by such inflexible disdain,
I clutched him, by my sorrow made insane,
And, with loud groans and sobs of indignation,
I cursed his hoary beard and brows again.

And with the strength of multitudes in madness
I dragged him up through sheer and rocky ways,
Far on chill Sinai's summits, where they raise
High toward the stars, and, with a heart-felt gladness,
I pointed down and bade the prophet gaze.

There, on the spacious plain, the sun descending
Flooded with lingering rays the impious throngs
Of Israel, who had wrought my woes and wrongs,
The Israel led from bondage, fiercely rending
The air with vile and sacrilegious songs!

There, in the fertile valley, had assembled
The noblest tribes, with twenty thousand tents,
To worship in their pagan insolence,
While, rising o'er the sea of heads that trembled,
The Calf of Gold gleamed in magnificence!

And Moses, seeing it clearly, smote his forehead,
And, having scorned my warning word, the sage
Held high within his hands God's holy gage,
And, with anathemas severe and horrid,
Hurled down toward earth the tablets in his rage!