Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917.
By Alter AbelsonLegendary Lights
O,
Gleaming goldenly in night
Like the stars above,
Beautiful, like lights in dream,
Eight, the taper-flames that stream
All one glory and one love.
Memories, now tragical—
Holy hero-hearts aflame
With a glory more than fame;
There where a shrine is every sod,
Every grave, God’s golden ore,
With a pæan whose rhyme to God,
Lit these lamps of yore.
Faith and bravery you beam,
Youth and dawn and May.
Would your beam were more than dream,
Would the light and love you stream,
Stirred us, spurred us, aye!
Till the beast in man we tame,
Tyrants bow to truth, amain,
Brands and bullets yield to brain,
Guns to God, and shells to soul,
Hounds to heart resign the rôle,
Pillared lights of liberty,
In your fairy flames, we’ll see
Faith’s and freedom’s Phœnix-might,
The Omnipotence of Right.