Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

By Henry S. Jacobs

Morning Song

(The hymn beginning with these words is among the most beautiful and heart-reaching preserved in our liturgy, though evidently intended for private devotion. Its author is R. Solomon Ibn Gabirol, one of Israel’s most tuneful and gifted poets.)

AT early morn, Thee will I seek

In pray’r, O Rock of my defence!

’Fore Thy greatness stand I in awe,

Abash’d at Thy omnipotence.

O, what avails the power of man!

Thy hand its limits doth control;

O, where the beauty of the form

That clothes in clay the god-like soul?

All these are naught; whate’er we are,

Whate’er we have, Thy goodness gives;

Then let our praise to Thee ascend,

Whilst yet in us the spirit lives.