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Poems by Isaac Rosenberg

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POEMS BY ISAAC ROSENBERG<br />

Young<br />

Hebrew<br />

For shame! Our brothers 1 twisted blood-smeared<br />

"111 us<br />

Tell we only have more room for wreck curtailed :<br />

For you, having no teeth to draw, it is no mercy<br />

Perhaps; but they might mangle your gums<br />

Or touch a nerve somewhere. He barred it now<br />

And that is all his thanks, he, too, in peril.<br />

Be still, old man ; wait a little.<br />

Wait<br />

Old Hebrew<br />

All day some slow dark quadruped beats<br />

To pulp our springiness :<br />

All day some hoofed animal treads our veins,<br />

Leisurely—leisurely our energies flow out<br />

All agonies created from the first day<br />

Have wandered hungry searching the world for us,<br />

Or they would perish like disused Behemoth.<br />

Is our Messiah one to unleash these agonies<br />

As Moses does, who gives us an Abinoah ?<br />

Young Hebrew<br />

Yesterday as I lay nigh dead with toil<br />

Underneath the hurtling crane oiled with our<br />

blood,<br />

64

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