Preludes 1921-1922 | Page 2

fit him for the striking of the men?Who profaned beauty and let the soul be blind.?And he was diligent in bronze and arms,?And kept his body supple, and his eye?Keen, and the coming of his hooves was thunder,?Wherever battle fell. He bore a flame,?Zealous and pure, in the heavens of his mind,?To serve and to instruct. Aye, to instruct--?There was the biting blemish, as we shall see.
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Philistia was foul, and Jonathan knew,?And the voice of God within him was plain and constant?To strike and strike unwearying to the end.?And then the poor, precise, infirmity?That loads good minds with ever seeming virtue,?Until they cast their treasure to the dust,?Crept on him, wound about the gleaming truth?That was his one foundation. Day by day?He was resolved, and then the grain of doubt?Would come to hurt the riding of his thought,?And break the level balance that it had.?Was then the Philistine mere black? That day?Jonathan's arm half paused upon the blow,?And evil went a little scatheless off.?Surely the worst even of adversaries?Had somewhere beams that pointed to salvation,?And hasty judgment might not be the will?Of an all-seeing Lord? Then would the vengeance?Falter, and stay, and Jonathan's battle failed.?And always then was bitterness and reproach?In the night watches when upon his couch?He looked on the stars studding his little window?Before sleep came. Then he would speak again?The word that single was his valiance,?His only truth, his warrant as a man,?And once again Philistia was doomed.?Then for a season clean the stroke and sure?That Jonathan drove, and black was known for black,?Till slowly as before would mount and mount?Scruple on scruple, as was not he himself?A little black sometimes, or plainly wicked??And should the wicked man not be redeemed??Merely destruction surely was no answer,?Since yet the wickedness must wander somewhere??How should he say, I, Jonathan of Israel?Am good, and you the Philistine are cursed,?Since in that face was something that had been?Learnt from the buds and corn and frozen hills?That he himself had known for seals of God??And would not his power on Israel increase,?Take on a loftier authority,?If to his famous arms he could add a tale?Of counsel working in the hearts of men,?Moving them to a finer charity,?A little pity for offence? And so?Instruction like a worm was at his roots,?And pride of virtue made Jonathan forget.?Then sometimes as he knew himself betrayed?He would cry upon his spirit in the night--
I, Jonathan, who know?The processes of God?Moving within me,?Turn aside to my idols of desire.?He has taught me the ways?Of Philistine cruelty. He?Shows me the bad man toiling to the ruin?Of beauty and the free spirit on earth,?And has equipped me for the establishment?Of His will in this battle, and I fail.?I am a leaf spinning about the wind,?Who have been shown the ways of stedfastness.?O Israel, I have heard?My dedication made?To your sweet service by the voice of Him,?And I betray?That wisdom, that great simpleness of wisdom,?Inventing in my brain?Fantastic argument?As though God's mind?Had missed the brighter pools?That I alone could visit and gaze into.?He tells me, and I hear?Voices not His.?Knowing, I question. And I am ashamed.
So Jonathan saw walking at his side?Always a shadow that was his own denial.
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And now was April mirrored in the plumes?Of ravens and the green of the young wheat,?And dusky ewes with white lambs in the sun?Lay in the valley plain between the hosts?Of Israel and Philistia. And on this day?Jonathan learnt utter reproach, and love.?There on the plain Goliath stood alone,?Poised in his mighty bulk, with black locks flowing,?A handsbreadth taller even than Saul the king?Who shouldered it above the men of Israel,?And beat his words of sure defiance out,?Ringing across the windless noon. And all?Israel heard, and fear was on them, knowing,?If thus the issue, how it should prevail.?And Jonathan in the tent of Saul his father,?Watched, and his blood was quick, and in his mind?He strove against the last of doubt. And then?The young man David stood before them, bidden?By Saul, who heard one say, "There is a boy?New come from tending sheep in Bethlehem,?And seeks the king." And David stood before them,?And asked no leave, but said, "There was a cause.?It bade me come, and I will fight with him."?And Saul denied, but David did not hear?Denial, saying, "the wild beasts of the field?I with my hand have slain at the fold's gate,?And this is mine to do." And David stood,?Greater than argument while Saul armed him there.?And Jonathan saw the purpose that he was not,?Glowing and bodied, and his love was born.
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Then David flung the armour off, and said,?"I am David, and I know not these strange arms.?I must go out as I have always been,?Not girt with new occasion. It is I,?David the shepherd that am David still,?And I know nothing of your spears and plate.?A sheepskin have I