| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | Mordecai | | By Helen Hunt Jackson |
| | | MAKE friends with him! He is of royal line, | |
| Although he sits in rags. Not all of thine | |
| Array of splendor, pomp of high estate, | |
| Can buy him from his place within the gate, | |
| The King’s gate of thy happiness, where he, | 5 |
| Yes, even he, the Jew, remaineth free, | |
| Never obeisance making, never scorn | |
| Betraying of thy silver and new-born | |
| Delight. Make friends with him, for unawares | |
| The charmed secret of thy joys he bears; | 10 |
| Be glad, so long as his black sackcloth, late | |
| And early, thwarts thy sun; for if in hate | |
| Thou plottest for his blood, thy own death cry, | |
| Not his, comes from the gallows cubits high. | | | | |
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