Chapter I: Front Matter

POEMS BY
ISAAC ROSENBERG

SONGS IN CAPTIVITY
_By R. H. Sauter_

BALLAD OF THE “ROYAL ANN”
_By Crosbie Garston_

DOWN HERE THE HAWTHORN
_By Thomas Moult_

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN

ISAAC ROSENBERG.
]

POEMS BY
ISAAC ROSENBERG

SELECTED AND EDITED BY
GORDON BOTTOMLEY

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR BY
LAURENCE BINYON

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN

_Youth is still childhood: when we cast off every cloudy vesture, and our thoughts are clear and mature; when every act is a conscious thought, every thought an attempt to arrest feeling; our feelings strong and overwhelming, our sensitiveness awakened by insignificant things in life; when the skies race tumultuously with our blood, and the earth shines and laughs; when our blood hangs suspended at the rustling of a gown. Our vanity loves to subdue—battle, aggressive. How we despise those older and duller—we want life, newness, excitement._

(_Circa 1916._)

CONTENTS

PAGE
INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR 1
†MOSES: A PLAY 51

POEMS FROM CAMP AND TRENCH:
DAUGHTERS OF WAR 81
ON RECEIVING THE FIRST NEWS OF THE WAR 84
†SPRING, 1916 86
THE TROOP SHIP 87
†MARCHING 88
BREAK OF DAY IN THE TRENCHES 89
KILLED IN ACTION 91
RETURNING, WE HEAR THE LARKS 92
THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM BY THE BABYLONIAN HORDES 93
THE BURNING OF THE TEMPLE 95
HOME-THOUGHTS FROM FRANCE 96
THE IMMORTALS 97
LOUSE HUNTING 98
GIRL TO SOLDIER ON LEAVE 100
SOLDIER: TWENTIETH CENTURY 102
THE JEW 103
THE DYING SOLDIER 104
DEAD MAN’S DUMP 105
IN WAR 109
§THE DEAD HEROES 112

FRAGMENTS OF “THE UNICORN”:
I. THE AMULET 117
II. THE SONG OF TEL THE NUBIAN 129
III. THE TOWER OF SKULLS 130

EARLIER POEMS:
§EXPRESSION 135
*FROM “NIGHT AND DAY” 137
ZION 140
*SPIRITUAL ISOLATION: A FRAGMENT 142
FAR AWAY 144
SPRING 145
SONG 146
*HEART’S FIRST WORD. I. 147
†HEART’S FIRST WORD. II. 149
*LADY, YOU ARE MY GOD 150
§IF YOU ARE FIRE 151
IN THE UNDERWORLD 152
*O, IN A WORLD OF MEN AND WOMEN 153
§A GIRL’S THOUGHTS 154
A BALLAD OF WHITECHAPEL 155
*TESS 159
THE NUN 160
§IN PICCADILLY 161
§A MOOD 162
†FIRST FRUIT 163
A CARELESS HEART 164
DAWN 165
AT NIGHT 166
CREATION 168
OF ANY OLD MAN 170
THE ONE LOST 171
§WEDDED 172
DON JUAN’S SONG 173
ON A LADY SINGING 174
BEAUTY 175
A QUESTION 176
†CHAGRIN 177
THE BLIND GOD 179
THE FEMALE GOD 180
†GOD 182
†SLEEP 184
MY DAYS 186

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The poems whose titles are marked * appeared in a privately issued pamphlet, “Night and Day. By Isaac Rosenberg. 1912” (pp. 24); those marked § in “Youth. By Isaac Rosenberg. London, I. Narodiczky, Printer, 48 Mile End Road, E. 1915” (pp. 18); and those marked † in “Moses. A Play. By Isaac Rosenberg. London, Printed By The Paragon Printing Works, 8 Ocean Street, Stepney Green, E. 1916” (pp. ii + 26).

These pamphlets were the only work issued by the author, in addition to the following single pieces which appeared in various periodicals:

“In the Workshop,” in _A Piece of Mosaic_ (for a Jewish Bazaar).

“Our Dead Heroes,” in _South African Women in Council_, December, 1914.

“Essay on Art,” Part I. (prose), prefaced by a poem, “Beauty,” in _South African Women in Council_, December, 1914.

“Essay on Art,” Part II., _South African Women in Council_, January, 1915.

“Marching,” and “Break of Day in the Trenches,” in _Poetry_ (Chicago), December, 1916.

The following pieces have appeared posthumously:

“In Piccadilly,” “If You are Fire,” “Heart’s First Word, II.,” “Wedded,” “I Did Not Pluck at All,” in _Art and Letters_, Summer, 1919; with an “In Memoriam” notice by Annie Rosenberg.

“Killed in Action,” in _Colour_, October, 1919.

“Savage Song” (“A Naked African” from “Moses”), “God,” in _Rainbow_ (New York), October, 1920; with an “In Memoriam” notice by Horace Brodzky.

“I Mingle with Your Bones”; with an article by Samuel Roth, in _Voices_, Summer, 1921.

INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR