The Chinese Nightingale and Other Poems [20]
Both Leaders: You shall be proud again,
Dazzle the crowd again,
Laughing aloud
For ten thousand years.
Both Leaders: King Solomon he had four hundred shepherds.
Congregation: We were the shepherds.
Both Leaders: You shall have torches bright,
Watching the folds by night,
Guarding the lambs aright,
Ten thousand years.
Men's Leader: King Solomon he asked the Queen of Sheba,
Bowing most politely:
"Why are the stars so high,
There in the velvet sky,
Rolling in rivers by,
Ten thousand years?"
Women's Leader: The Queen of Sheba answered like a lady,
Bowing most politely:
"They're singing of your kingdom to the angels,
They guide your chariot with their lamps and candles,
Therefore they burn so far --
So you can drive your car
Up where the prophets are,
Ten thousand years."
Men's Leader: King Solomon,
King Solomon.
Both Leaders: King Solomon he kept the Sabbath holy.
And spoke with tongues in prophet words so mighty
We stamped and whirled and wept and shouted: --
Congregation Rises and Joins the Song:
. . . . "Glory."
We were his people.
Both Leaders: You shall be wild and gay,
Green trees shall deck your way,
Sunday be every day,
Ten thousand years.
King Solomon,
King Solomon.
How Samson Bore Away the Gates of Gaza
(A Negro Sermon.)
Once, in a night as black as ink,
She drove him out when he would not drink.
Round the house there were men in wait
Asleep in rows by the Gaza gate.
But the Holy Spirit was in this man.
Like a gentle wind he crept and ran.
("It is midnight," said the big town clock.)
He lifted the gates up, post and lock.
The hole in the wall was high and wide
When he bore away old Gaza's pride
Into the deep of the night: --
The bold Jack Johnson Israelite, --
Samson --
The Judge,
The Nazarite.
The air was black, like the smoke of a dragon.
Samson's heart was as big as a wagon.
He sang like a shining golden fountain.
He sweated up to the top of the mountain.
He threw down the gates with a noise like judgment.
And the quails all ran with the big arousement.
But he wept -- "I must not love tough queens,
And spend on them my hard earned means.
I told that girl I would drink no more.
Therefore she drove me from her door.
Oh sorrow!
Sorrow!
I cannot hide.
Oh Lord look down from your chariot side.
You made me Judge, and I am not wise.
I am weak as a sheep for all my size."
Let Samson
Be coming
Into your mind.
The moon shone out, the stars were gay.
He saw the foxes run and