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Home  »  The Standard Book of Jewish Verse  »  To Russia

Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917.

By Joaquin Miller

To Russia

WHO tamed your lawless Tartar blood?

What David bearded in her den

The Russian bear in ages when

You strode your black, unbridled stud,

A skin-clad savage of your steppes?

Why, one who now sits low and weeps,

Why, one who now wails out to you,—

The Jew, the Jew, the homeless Jew.

Who girt the thews of your young prime

And bound your fierce divided force?

Why, who but Moses shaped your course

United down the grooves of time?

Your mighty millions all today

The hated, homeless Jew obey.

Who taught all poetry to you?

The Jew, the Jew, the hated Jew.

Who taught you tender Bible tales

Of honey-lands of milk and wine?

Of happy, peaceful Palestine?

Of Jordan’s holy harvest vales?

Who gave the patient Christ? I say

Who gave the Christian creed? Yea, yea,

Who gave your very God to you?

Your Jew! Your Jew! Your hated Jew!