Philistines and dullards,
Turn, look with amaze
At my foxes running in your cornfields
With their tails ablaze,
At bloody jawbone, at bees flitting
From the stark lion’s hide:
At these, the gates of well-walled Gaza,
Clanking to my stride.
CHILDREN OF DARKNESS
(“In their generation wiser than the children of Light.”)
We spurred our parents to the kiss,
Though doubtfully they shrank from this—
Day had no courage to review
What lusty dark alone might do—
Then were we joined from their caress
In heat of midnight, one from two.
This night-seed knew no discontent,
In certitude his changings went;
Though there were veils about his face,
With forethought, even in that pent place,
Down towards the light his way he bent
To kingdoms of more ample space.
Was Day prime error, that regret
For darkness roars unstifled yet?
That in this freedom, by faith won,
Only acts of doubt are done?
That unveiled eyes with tears are wet,
They loathe to gaze upon the sun?
RICHARD ROE AND JOHN DOE
Richard Roe wished himself Solomon
Made cuckold, you should know, by one John Doe;
Solomon’s neck was firm enough to bear
Some score of antlers more than Roe could wear.
Richard Roe wished himself Alexander,
Being robbed of house and land by the same hand;
Ten thousand acres or a principal town
Would have cost Alexander scarce a frown.
Richard Roe wished himself Job the prophet,
Sunk past reclaim in stinking rags and shame;
Job’s plight was utterly bad, his own even worse,
He found no God to call on or to curse.