Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917.
By Horace M. KallenThe Maccabean
W
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.
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.