Explore "The Feast of Lights" by Emma Lazarus on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Kindle the taper like the steadfast star / Ablaze on evening's forehead o'er the earth, / And add each night a lustre till afar / An eightfold splendor shine above thy hearth. / Clash, Israel, the cymbals, touch the lyre, / Blow the brass trumpet and the harsh-tongued horn; / Chant psalms of victory till the heart takes fire, / The Maccabean spirit leap new-born.
Remember how from wintry dawn till night, / Such songs were sung in Zion, when again / On the high altar flamed the sacred light, / And, purified from every Syrian stain, / The foam-white walls with golden shields were hung, / With crowns and silken spoils, and at the shrine, / Stood, midst their conqueror-tribe, five chieftains sprung / From one heroic stock, one seed divine.