Poems by Isaac Rosenberg

—
MOSES
Old Hebrew
I am crazed with whips. ... I hear a Messiah.
Young Hebrew
The venerable man will question this.
Abinoah
[Overhearing.] Ill beat you more, and he'll
question
The scratchiness of your whining ; or, may be,
Thence ma} be born deep argument
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With reasons from philosophy,
That this blow, taking longer, yet was but one,
Or perhaps two ; or that you felt this one
Arguing from the difference in your whine
Exactly, or not, like the other.
Minstrel
You labour hard to give pain.
Abinoah
[Still beating.] My pain is . . . not ... to
labour
so.
Minstrel
What is this greybeard worth to you now,
All his dried-up blood crumbled to dust?
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