Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.
Holy WritArthur Davison Ficke
I
Those nights when I lay shivering in my bed
And saw the candle-light round my aunt’s head
Casting its hazy sanctifying glow;
And heard her read strange story after story
Of Jonah, Adam, Moses, Esau, Ruth,
Of Solomon’s old age and David’s youth—
Things haunting, tender, terrible or gory.
Still can I see the Queen of Sheba’s hair;
And all real lions are but mockery
To him who once knew Daniel’s; there’s no tree
That can with Eve’s great Paradise Tree compare:
A golden light gleamed through that ancient air
That leaves me homesick in modernity.