THE NEW EZEKIEL
by: Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)
- HAT, can
these dead bones live, whose sap is dried
- By twenty scorching centuries of wrong?
- Is this the House of Israel, whose pride
- Is as a tale that's told, an ancient song?
- Are these ignoble relics all that live
- Of psalmist, priest, and prophet? Can the breath
- Of very heaven bid these bones revive,
- Open the graves and clothe the ribs of death?
-
- Yea, Prophesy, the Lord hath said. Again
- Say to the wind, Come forth and breathe afresh,
- Even that they may live upon these slain,
- And bone to bone shall leap, and flesh to flesh.
- The Spirit is not dead, proclaim the word,
- Where lay dead bones, a host of armed men stand!
- I ope your graves, my people, saith the Lord,
- And I shall place you living in your land.
"The New Ezekiel" is reprinted
from The Poems of Emma Lazarus. Emma Lazarus. New York:
Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., 1889. |
MORE
POEMS BY EMMA LAZARUS |
|