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Home  »  The Standard Book of Jewish Verse  »  “Fire from high, holy heaven down-drawn”

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

By James Maurice Thompson

“Fire from high, holy heaven down-drawn”

FIRE from high, holy heaven down-drawn,

By her strong soul and true,

Flashed over Israel, a sudden dawn

With star-song wild and new,

A moment silent in her fair, firm hand

The harp of David lay,

Then gulfs of hopeless, sorrowing years were spanned

When she began to play,

Hers was a woman’s song, whose martial force

All preludes down-hurled—

Razed every wall that barred its noble course

Around the hindering world.

On far blood-hallowed hills the trampled dust

Of patriarch sires did glow,

And matchless swords, long buried in their rust,

Leaped eager for the blow.

In their lone tombs the Hebrew heroes heard,

The prophets felt and knew.

How once again divinest courage stirred

The genius of the Jew.

A Maccabean influence thrilled the sky,

And shone from star and sun,

The banner of old days was passing by

With toph and clarion!