Classic Poem

A Woman Speaks.

Forth unto Horeb in my mighty sorrow
I hastened, seeking everywhere the bland,
Calm face of Moses, absent from the land
Now forty days, and from his laws to borrow
Justice, and speedy vengeance from his hand;

Moses, who walked to meet his awful Master,
Alone among dull thunders, face to face,
He who could give me fortitude and grace
To bear the burden of my fell disaster,
He who could crush the haughty and the base.

And forth o'er crags granitic to entreat him
I went, with blurred eyes and disheveled hair,
Goaded by all the serpents of despair,
Yet knowing not if I should chance to meet him,
High in the mountains, lost in saintly prayer.

But where the misty and rugged cliffs had ending,
Fresh from the look of God, erect and white,
And most exultant by His sound and sight,
I saw his venerable form descending
With sere brows haloed in seraphic light.

The glory of the unknown was on him beaming,
Safe from the mystery whose name alarms,
Safe from the terror of malignant harms,
And as he came upon me, pale and dreaming,
He held two tablets in his withered arms.

Filled with sublimest awe and inspiration,
He gazed upon me with bewildered eyes,
On me, the interruption, the surprise!
But in the torment of my desolation
I heeded not, and, fearless, spake this wise:

" Oh Moses! my hushed wrongs can stay no longer!
Oh most revered one! harken to my plea!
Before thy matchless majesty my knee
Bends down, but now my hardiness grows stronger.
Oh, Moses! Moses! harken unto me!

" Know, I am Helia, for thou canst not know me,
A woman of the Levi tribe, distressed,
And by thy brother, Aaron, sore oppressed.
Oh, grand justiciary of our people! show me
Thy law and light, and honor my behest!

" To call on thee I have not hesitated
Up Sinai's hollow fastnesses to plod.
I have sought thee in the presence of thy God,
And, daring all, to beg thee venerated "
To smite and chastise Israel with thy rod.

" While thou wast absent in these wilds ferocious,
Know that the thousands in thy care have spurned
The living God, and have with anthems turned
To worship idols bestial and atrocious,
And for false gods have insolently burned.