Maria Jane Jewsbury

King Herod’s Oath

   Once on a charger there was laid,
   And brought before a royal maid,
   As price of attitude and grace,
   A guiltless head, a holy face.

                       Lamb's Poems.

'TIS a thousand years and more,
Since the birth-night feast was spread,
For the pride of the Galilean shore,
King Herod at their head.
Gorgeous the lighted hall,
Royal the banquet cheer;
Who that beheld such festival,
Foreboded guilt or fear?
Rich radiance widely streamed
From golden lamps hung high,
The gazer saw and dreamed
Of midnight's starry sky.
Gold, gold, and gems below,
On board, and brow, and vest;
And slaves that knelt to know
Each glittering lord's behest:

Frank pledge, and princely glance,
Music and minstrel strain,
And a bright maid's witching dance,
Who, who, might dream of pain?
'Tis a thousand years and more,
Since a fettered prophet stood,
And beheld his prison door
Admit a man of blood.
Yet fearlessly breathed he
His life's fast-ebbing breath,
Stately, and stern, and free,
For what to him was death?
To him the promised child,
Star of Immanuel's morn?
Him of the desert wild,
Greatest of woman born?
King Herod's hall was bright,
The prophet's dungeon dim,
One stroke and the rayless night
Grew endless day to him!
They bore his ghastly head,
'Mid the revel's maddening din,
But the soul far thence had fled,
And heaven had entered in.
The sword had given a crown,
Glory, unknown on earth;
And the seer a king, looked down
That night on Herod's mirth!
A thousand years and more,
Hath Herod rued that night
Not on the Galilean shore;
Not in his palace bright.