C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Emma Lazarus (1849–1887)
The Crowing of the Red Cock
A
The flicker of a blood-red dawn;
Once more the clarion cock has crowed,
Once more the sword of Christ is drawn;
A million burning roof-trees light
The world-wide path of Israel’s flight.
The folk of Christ is sore bestead;
The Son of Man is bruised and banned,
Nor finds whereon to lay his head.
His cup is gall, his meat is tears;
His passion lasts a thousand years.
Is visited upon his kind:
The lust of mobs, the greed of priest,
The tyranny of kings, combined
To root his seed from earth again;
His record is one cry of pain.
Against his sires and kin is known,
The flood of tears, the life-blood spilt,
The agony of ages shown,
What oceans can the stain remove
From Christian law and Christian love?
The hideous tale of sin narrate,
Re-echoing in the martyr’s ear:
Even he might nurse revengeful hate;
Even he might turn in wrath sublime,
With blood for blood and crime for crime.
Who singly against worlds has fought,—
For what? A name he may not breathe,
For liberty of prayer and thought.
The angry sword he will not whet,
His nobler task is—to forget.