Feast of Lights, The

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2> THE FEAST OF LIGHTS. </h2> <p>Kindle the taper like the steadfast star<br/> Ablaze on evening's forehead o'er the earth,<br/> And add each night a lustre till afar<br/> An eightfold splendor shine above thy hearth.<br/> Clash, Israel, the cymbals, touch the lyre,<br/> Blow the brass trumpet and the harsh-tongued horn;<br/> Chant psalms of victory till the heart takes fire,<br/> The Maccabean spirit leap new-born.<br/></p> <p>Remember how from wintry dawn till night,<br/> Such songs were sung in Zion, when again<br/> On the high altar flamed the sacred light,<br/> And, purified from every Syrian stain,<br/> The foam-white walls with golden shields were hung,<br/> With crowns and silken spoils, and at the shrine,<br/> Stood, midst their conqueror-tribe, five chieftains sprung<br/> From one heroic stock, one seed divine.<br/></p> <p>Five branches grown from Mattathias' stem,<br/> The Blessed John, the Keen-Eyed Jonathan,<br/> Simon the fair, the Burst-of Spring, the Gem,<br/> Eleazar, Help of-God; o'er all his clan<br/> Judas the Lion-Prince, the Avenging Rod,<br/> Towered in warrior-beauty, uncrowned king,<br/> Armed with the breastplate and the sword of God,<br/> Whose praise is: "He received the perishing."<br/></p> <p>They who had camped within the mountain-pass,<br/> Couched on the rock, and tented neath the sky,<br/> Who saw from Mizpah's heights the tangled grass<br/> Choke the wide Temple-courts, the altar lie<br/> Disfigured and polluted&mdash;who had flung<br/> Their faces on the stones, and mourned aloud<br/> And rent their garments, wailing with one tongue,<br/> Crushed as a wind-swept bed of reeds is bowed,<br/></p> <p>Even they by one voice fired, one heart of flame,<br/> Though broken reeds, had risen, and were men,<br/> They rushed upon the spoiler and o'ercame,<br/> Each arm for freedom had the strength of ten.<br/> Now is their mourning into dancing turned,<br/> Their sackcloth doffed for garments of delight,<br/> Week-long the festive torches shall be burned,<br/> Music and revelry wed day with night.<br/></p> <p>Still ours the dance, the feast, the glorious Psalm,<br/> The mystic lights of emblem, and the Word.<br/> Where is our Judas? Where our five-branched palm?<br/> Where are the lion-warriors of the Lord?<br/> Clash, Israel, the cymbals, touch the lyre,<br/> Sound the brass trumpet and the harsh-tongued horn,<br/> Chant hymns of victory till the heart take fire,<br/> The Maccabean spirit leap new-born!<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />