Page:Poems of Emma Lazarus vol 2.djvu/125

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THE DANCE TO DEATH.
107

Sputtering blasphemy — who then would shrink
From holy vengeance? who would offer leas
Heroic wrath and filial zeal to God
Than to a murdered father ?

PRINCESS

But my son
Will die with her be loves.

PRIOR

Better to perish
In time than in eternity. No question
Penda here of individual life ; our sight
Must broaden to embrace the scope sublime
Of this trans-earthly theme. The Jew survives
Sword, plague, fire, cataclysm — and must, since Christ
Cursed him to live till doomsday, still to be
A scarecrow to the nations. None the less
Are we beholden in Christ's name at whites,
When maggot-wise Jews breed, infest, infect
Communities of Christians, to wash clean
The Church's vesture, shaking off the filth
That gathers round her skirts. A perilous
Enow you not, all the welts, the very air
The Jews have poisoned? — Through their arta alone
The Black Death scourges Christendom.