Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MACCABEAN, by HORACE MEYER KALLEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MACCABEAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Whether of fate, or by the hand of man
Last Line: Flash like the sun into the clouded sky.
Subject(s): Fate; Heroism; Jews; Destiny; Heroes; Heroines; Judaism


WHETHER of Fate, or by the hand of man,
His hallowed soul glows still the ages through;
Their flux the body changes, hue on hue,
But, brooding Ivanese or quick American,
His heart must answer to the Yaweh-clan
When thrills its call the earth or cracks the blue,
His spirit leaps onto the fray anew,
As when he shamed Olympus with his ban.

Not his is it to lag in the world-war
Nor to question whether he live or die,
And though his soul and sense red strife abhor,
His task forever is to purify.
Behold the standard that of old he bore
Flash like the sun into the clouded sky.





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