Jephthah's Daughter |
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Common terms and phrases
agony altar ambrosial Ammon art thou Aulis beam begone Behold bless bosom breast bright ceased cherish clouds dare death deep demands Divine doom dread dream drooped E'en eyes Fate fierce flame forget gaze Gilead Gilead's chair glory grief grim hands harp hast thou hath hear heart Heaven Hebrew maid hour Israel Jehovah Jephthah JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER leave let me live life's light listen look Lord loud maidens midst moans monster moon mother mute night o'er pale peace perish plead pray priest ransom rashly rejoicing rend round seems shame shouldst Silent sire slavery sleep sobs solemn song sore soul sound spare stars stead stood sullen sweet swift tears tempests thee thine thou art thy father thyself trembling Twas twixt UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN unto victory weary wert whilst wild wind wondering wouldst thou ye men youth
Popular passages
Page vii - Open, my heart, thy ruddy valves, — It is thy master calls : Let me go down, and, curious, trace Thy labyrinthine halls. Open, O heart ! and let me view The secrets of thy den : Myself unto myself now show With introspective ken. Expose thyself, thou covered nest, Of passions, and be seen : Stir up thy brood, that in unrest Are ever piping keen : — Ah ! what a motley multitude, Magnanimous and mean !
Page 26 - He said, and stood awaiting for the sign, And heard, above the hoarse, bough-bending wind, The hill-wolf howling on the neighboring height, And bittern booming in the pool below. Some drops of rain fell from the passing cloud That sudden hides the wanly shining moon, And from the scabbard instant dropped his sword, And, with long, living leaps, and rock-struck clang, From side to side, aud slope to sounding slope, In gleaming whirls swept down the dim ravine.
Page xviii - How great unto the living seem the dead ! How sacred, solemn ; how heroic grown ; How vast and vague, as they obscurely tread The shadowy confines of the dim unknown ! — For they have met the monster that we dread, Have learned the secret not to mortal shown. E'en as gigantic shadows on the wall The spirit of the daunted child amaze, So on us thoughts of the departed fall, And with phantasma fill our gloomy gaze. Awe and deep wonder lend the living lines, And hope and ecstasy the borrowed beams...
Page x - And night was hanging o'er my head — Night, where a myriad stars were spread ; While down in the east, where the light was least, Seemed the home of the quiet dead. And, as I gazed on the field sublime, To watch the bright, pulsating stars, Adown the deep where the angels sleep Came drawn the golden chime Of those great spheres that sound the years For the horologe of time. Millenniums numberless they told, Millenniums a millionfold From the ancient hour of prime.
Page xvii - Tis solemn darkness ; the sublime of shade ; Night, by no stars nor rising moon relieved; The awful blank of nothingness arrayed, O'er which my eyeballs roll in vain, deceived. Upward, around, and downward I explore, E'en to the frontiers of the ebon air ; But cannot, though I strive, discover more Than what ois one huge cavern of despair.
Page xvii - twixt two houris fair, Thou stand'st between the evening and the morn ? I took thee for an angel, but have wooed A cacodajmon in mine ignorant mood.
Page 53 - The narrative flows in one unbroken current, detached parts whereof hint but imperfectly of the whole, as do goblets of water of the stream wherefrom they are dipped. We will only venture to present two brief passages. The daughter speaks : — " Let me not need now disobey you, mother, But give me leave to knock at Death's pale gate, Whereat indeed I must, by duty drawn, By Nature shown the sacred way to yield. Behold, the coasting cloud obeys the breeze ; The slanting smoke, the invisible sweet...
Page 5 - T was in those ancient days coeval deemed With the song-famous and heroic ones, When Agamemnon, taught divinely, doomed His daughter to expire at Dian's shrine, — So doomed, to free the chivalry of Greece, In Aulis lingering for a favoring wind To waft them to the fated walls of Troy.
Page 72 - Recording how, inviolable, stood The bounds of Israel, by my blood secured. Nor more shall they thus celebrate myself Than laud my sire ; who, in his day of might, Swore, not in vain, unto the Lord, who gave Him victory, although he took his child ; — Took her, but gave him, in her stead, his country, With a renowned, imperishable name.
Page 6 - With the song-famous and heroic ones, When Agamemnon, taught divinely, doomed His daughter to expire at Dian's shrine, — So doomed, to free the chivalry of Greece, In Aulis lingering for a favoring wind To waft them to the fated walls of Troy. Two songs with but one burden, twin-like tales. Sad tales ! but this the sadder of the twain, — This song, a wail more desolately wild ; More fraught this story with grim fate fulfilled.