Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
I. The Divine Element(God, Christ, the Holy Spirit)The Flight into Egypt
Francis Sylvester Mahony (Father Prout) (18041866)T
In the lands where the pyramids be;
And her robe was embroidered with stars, and her belt
With devices right wondrous to see;
And she lived in the days when our Lord was a child
On his mother’s immaculate breast;
When he fled from his foes,—when to Egypt exiled,
He went down with Saint Joseph the blest.
And the future was given to her gaze;
For an obelisk marked her abode, and a sphinx
On her threshold kept vigil always.
She was pensive and ever alone, nor was seen
In the haunts of the dissolute crowd;
But communed with the ghosts of the Pharaohs, I ween,
Or with visitors wrapped in a shroud.
With a maid on a mule by that road;
And a child on her bosom reclined, and the way
Let them straight to the gypsy’s abode;
And they seemed to have travelled a wearisome path,
From thence many, many a league,—
From a tyrant’s pursuit, from an enemy’s wrath,
Spent with toil and o’ercome with fatigue.
That the pilgrims would rest them awhile;
And she offered her couch to that delicate maid,
Who had come many, many a mile.
And she fondled the babe with affection’s caress,
And she begged the old man would repose;
“Here the stranger,” she said, “ever finds free access,
And the wanderer balm for his woes.”
To a seat in her grotto so cool;
Where she spread them a banquet of fruits, and a shed,
With a manger, was found for the mule;
With the wine of the palm-tree, with dates newly culled,
All the toil of the day she beguiled;
And with song in a language mysterious she lulled
On her bosom the wayfaring child.
Took the infant’s diminutive palm,
O, ’t was fearful to see how the features she scanned
Of the babe in his slumbers so calm!
Well she noted each mark and each furrow that crossed
O’er the tracings of destiny’s line:
“W
“F
“Where we dwelt in the land of the Jew,
We have fled from a tyrant whose garment is dyed
In the gore of the children he slew:
We were told to remain till an angel’s command
Should appoint us the hour to return;
But till then we inhabit the foreigners’ land,
And in Egypt we make our sojourn.”
“And ye make of my dwelling your home;
Many years have I prayed that the Israelite boy
(Blessèd hope of the Gentiles!) would come.”
And she kissed both the feet of the infant and knelt,
And adored him at once; then a smile
Lit the face of his mother, who cheerfully dwelt
With her host on the bank of the Nile.