Can a man who has looked on the face of God,
and dwelt in the heavenly places, talk about it to others?
Furthermore this nineteenth stanza of _Saul_ contains a picture of
the dawn that has never been surpassed in poetry. Only those who
have spent nights in the great woods can really understand it.
SAUL
1845-1855
I
Said Abner, "At last thou art come! Ere I tell, ere thou speak,
Kiss my cheek, wish me well!" Then I wished it, and did kiss his
cheek.
And he: "Since the King, O my friend, for thy countenance sent,
Neither drunken nor eaten have we; nor until from his tent
Thou return with the joyful assurance the King liveth yet,
Shall our lip with the honey be bright, with the water be wet
For out of the black mid-tent's silence, a space of three days,
Not a sound hath escaped to thy servants, of prayer nor of praise,
To betoken that Saul and the Spirit have ended their strife,
And that, faint in his triumph, the monarch sinks back upon life.
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