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Page 6
Aye, so one says forget. She may forget:
Women are but bird-minded, flying quick
And eager from one tree-perch to the next,
And sometimes lighting on a thorny bough,
By chance, but not for long. A day or two
And she'll forget the prophet, be content
With her dear Jewish legends. But, for me,
Her sobbings and her talk will vex me, long
Past her remembering them. I'm strangely moved!
Indeed these several days I have not lost
The sense of shame that shook me when he looked
With quiet eyes at me, standing condemned
By my allowance. Wonderful weird man!
If gods indeed would take men's shapes, I'd say.
I saw the God in him. It is past thought
That any, even haters like the Jews,
Could hate him. Well they did and murdered him.
But I am guiltless of his blood. I went
To the utmost verge of prudence - nay, beyond -
To check the infuriate mob. Yes, by the gods,
No light task 'twould have been to clear myself
For my part in the mischief, if there'd grown
A riot from the trial, and that seemed like
Before I yielded. They are hard at Rome
On luckless governors. Aye, aye, my Jews
Had made a rare case of it: for the man,
Though to our Roman sense most innocent
Of all save too much wisdom for their wits,
Was doubtless somewhere tangled in the toils
Of their fastidious laws. Why, he had washed
At the wrong time - or had not washed, which was it?
He said the Scribes were pedants and the priests
Rank hypocrites ... which only we may say,
And which we're bidden not say to the Jews;
He told the mob their God was, after all,
More than their Moses; and, most heinous sin,
He healed their sick on sabbaths. By their law
He ought to die; their rulers urged that loud.
Next |
A Woman Sold
Bartimaeus
Judas
Pilate
The Walk To Emmaus
A Bride
A March Night
A Messenger
A Mother's Cry
A Wedding
Afterwards
Dead Amy
Deserted
Dreaming
Glad Waves
Going
How The Brook Sings
If
In The Storm
In The Sunshine
Looking Downstairs
Mary Lost
Never Again
Night Whispers
On The Lake
On The Shore
Our Lily
Passing Away
Perjured
Safe
Shadow
Sunlight
The Blush Rose
The Gift
The Heiress' Wooer
The Hidden Wound
The Lake
The Land Of Happy Dreams
The Old Year Out
The Red Star On The Hill
The River
The Setting Star
The Shadow Of A Cloud
To And Fro
To One Of Many
Too faithful
Two Maidens |
