Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BUSIRIS THE PROUD, by JAMES CHAPMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BUSIRIS THE PROUD, by                    
First Line: In a silence like that of sahara lies goshen
Last Line: The wilderness welcomes the feet of the free!
Subject(s): Egyptology; Religion; Theology


IN a silence like that of Sahara lies Goshen;
The stillness is weird -- it o'erawes, it appals:
In the field there's no stir, in the city no motion,
The wild dog prowls lonely 'mong desolate walls.

To the eastward away, 'neath the dust cloud that gathers,
Dense masses stretch far, they are nearing the sea;
'Tis the Hebrews, they hie to the home of their fathers,
The God of their fathers leads on -- they are free!

Can ye blame their elation, or tame its expression,
As forth from Rameses they surge and defile,
Though the anguish'd Egyptians' wild lamentation
Ascends with, and blends with, the moan of the Nile?

Ye may weep if ye will, where bereavement yet raises
Its plaint through the realms of Busiris the Proud;
As for me, I will join in their journeys and praises
Who follow I AM in His pillar of cloud.

But the sun seeks the desert, and Israel is rueing;
Night lowers on the wilderness -- where shall she flee?
In her rear rings the tramp of the war-horse pursuing,
Her flank feels the cliff, in her front foams the sea!

Hath the Levite been false? -- will Jehovah forsake her?
Through dust and through gloom she looks timidly back,
And she feels like the fawn when her terrors o'ertake her,
And tell her the jackal is hot on her track.

She is faint, she is faithless, yet God hears her 'plaining,
His east wind hath cloven the billowy bar,
'Tween the waters she wendeth, her sandals scarce staining,
While close on her rear rolls the Memphian car.

Down the vista of death rings the wild, mocking laughter --
Insulting to man, and defiant of God --
But the swarthy cheek pales as, across the cleft water,
Is stretch'd the avenging, the terrible rod!

At the 'hest of Jehovah the waves yawn asunder --
Omnipotence wills it, down, bursting they come,
And the neigh of the war-steed is lost in their thunder --
The shriek of the rider is stifled in foam!

Ah, the tyrant was proud, and his pride spread his pillow!
He mingles his locks with the slime of the sea;
O'er his cohorts careereth the merciless billow --
The wilderness welcomes the feet of the free!





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