Lest they snap 'neath the stress of the noontide- those sunbeams like swords!

And I first played the tune all our sheep know, as, one after one,

So docile they come to the pen-door, till folding be done.

They are white and untorn by the bushes, for lo, they have fed

Where the long grasses stifle the water within the stream's bed;

And now one after one seeks its lodging, as star follows

star

Into eve and the blue far above us,- so blue and so far!

6.

- Then the tune, for which quails on the cornland will each leave his mate

To fly after the player; then, what makes the crickets

elate,

Till for boldness they fight one another: and then, what

has weight

To set the quick jerboa a-musing outside his sand

house

There are none such as he for a wonder, half bird and

half mouse!

God made all the creatures and gave them our love and

our fear,

To give sign, we and they are his children, one family

here.

7.

Then I played the help-tune of our reapers, their wine.

song, when hand

Grasps at hand, eye lights eye in good friendship, and great hearts expand

And grow one in the sense of this world's life.

then, the last song

- And

When the dead man is praised on his journey-"Bear, bear him along

With his few faults shut up like dead flowerets! are balm-seeds not here

To console us? The land has none left, such as he on

the bier.

Oh, would we might keep thee, my brother!"

then, the glad chaunt

Of the marriage, first go the young maidens, next, she whom we vaunt

As the beauty, the pride of our dwelling. And then, the great march

Wherein man runs to man to assist him and buttress an arch Nought can break; who shall harm them, our friends? - Then, the chorus intoned As the Levites go up to the altar in glory enthroned.. But I stopped here for here in the darkness, Saul groaned.

8.

And I paused, held my breath in such silence, and listened apart;

And the tent shook, for mighty Saul shuddered, — and sparkles 'gan dart

From the jewels that woke in his turban at once with a

start

All its lordly male-sapphires, and rubies courageous at

heart.

So the head- but the body still moved not, still hung there erect.

And I bent once again to my playing, pursued it

As I sang,

9.

unchecked,

"Oh, our manhood's prime vigour! no

spirit feels waste,

Not a muscle is stopped in its playing, nor sinew un

braced.

Oh, the wild joys of living! the leaping from rock up to

rock

The strong rending of boughs from the fir-tree, the cool

silver shock

Of the plunge in a pool's living water, the hunt of the

bear,

And the sultriness showing the lion is couched in his

And the meal

lair.

the rich dates-yellowed over with gold dust divine,

And the locust's-flesh steeped in the pitcher; the fuli

draught of wine,

And the sleep in the dried river-channel where bull

rushes tell

That the water was wont to go warbling so softly and well.

How good is man's life, the mere living! how fit to em

ploy

All the heart and the soul and the senses, forever in

joy!

Hast thou loved the white locks of thy father, whose sword thou didst guard

When he trusted thee forth with the armies, for glorious reward?

Didst thou see the thin hands of thy mother, held up as

men sung

The low song of the nearly-departed, and heard her faint

tongue

Joining in while it could to the witness, "Let one more

attest,

I have lived, seen God's hand thro' a lifetime, and all

was for best...”

Then they sung thro' their tears in strong triumph, not much, but the rest.

And thy brothers, the help and the contest, the working

whence grew

Such result as from seething grape-bundles, the spirit

Present promise, and wealth of the future beyond the eye's scope,

Till lo, thou art grown to a monarch; a people is thine;

And all gifts which the world offers singly, on one head combine!

On one head, all the beauty and strength, love and rage, like the throe

That, a-work in the rock, helps its labour, and lets the gold go:

High ambition and deeds which surpass it, fame crown

And lo, with that leap of my spirit, heart, hand, harp

and voice,

Each lifting Saul's name out of sorrow, each bidding

Saul's fame in the light it was made for

rejoice

—as when, dare

I say,

The Lord's army in rapture of service, strains through

its array,

And upsoareth the cherubim-chariot

-"Saul!" cried I, and stopped,

And waited the thing that should follow. Then Saul, who hung propt

By the tent's cross-support in the centre, was struck by his name.

Have ye seen when Spring's arrowy summons goes right to the aim,