Poetry

TO RUSSIA.

Joaquin Miller

  • "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?"—Bible.

  • 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 to-day
  • 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 your Christian creed? Yea, yea,
  • Who gave your very God to you ?
  • Your Jew! Your Jew! Your hated Jew!