The Study of Poetry • Paragraph 1756
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Then I played the help-tune of our reapers, their wine-song, when hand {50} Grasps at hand, eye lights eye in good friendship, and great hearts expand And grow one in the sense of this world’s life.--And then, the last song When the dead man is praised on his journey--“Bear, bear him along With his few faults shut up like dead flowerets! Are balm seeds not here To console us? The land has none left such as he on the bier. Oh, would we might keep thee, my brother!”--And then, the glad chant Of the marriage,--first go the young maidens, next, she whom we vaunt As the beauty, the pride of our dwelling.--And then, the great march Wherein man runs to man to assist him and buttress an arch Naught can break; who shall harm them, our friends?--Then, the chorus intoned {60} As the Levites go up to the altar in glory enthroned. But I stopped here: for here in the darkness Saul groaned.