POEMS BY ISAAC ROSENBERG
And my soul thought:
"What fearful land have my steps wandered to?
God's love is everywhere, but here is naught
Save love His anger slew."
And as I stood
Lost in promiscuous bewilderment,
Which to my mazed soul was wonder-food,
A girl in garments rent
Peered 'neath lids shamed
And spoke to me and murmured to my blood.
My soul stopped dead, and all my horror flamed
At her forgot of God.
Her hungered eyes,
Craving and yet so sadly spiritual,
Shone like the unsmirched corner of a jewel
Where else foul blemish lies.
I walked with her
Because my heart thought, "Here the soul is clean,
The fragrance of the frankincense and myrrh
Is lost in odours mean."
She told me how
The shadow of black death had newly come
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