Judah’s Hallowed Bards

LET those who will hang rapturously o’er

The flowing eloquence of Plato’s page;

Repeat, with flashing eyes, the sounds that pour

From Homer’s verse as with a torrent’s rage;

Let those who list ask Tully to assuage

Wild hearts with high-wrought periods, and restore

The reign of rhetoric; or maxims sage

Winnow from Seneca’s sententious lore.

Not these, but Judah’s hallowed bards, to me

Are dear: Isaiah’s noble energy;

The temperate grief of Job; the artless strain

Of Ruth and pastoral Amos; the high songs

Of David; and the tale of Joseph’s wrongs,

Simply, pathetic, eloquently plain.