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Page 9 text:
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THE ANNUAL — OF — The Alary Baldwin Seminary Vol. VI. Staunton, Va., May, 1896. No. i. JUDITH. Of all the wealth of poems which we have received from our old Anglo-Saxon forefathers, not one has given us a higher or a truer idea of the poetic powers of our ancestors than this noble fragment, Judith. And, in scanning its pages, we find that the one thing in it which attracts us most strongly, is not the polish and bril- liancy of its language and metre, nor its well-rounded plot, nor its dramatic interest, but the charming way in which its author has displayed his own thoughts aud feelings, and has given us glimpses of his own heart-life, as he recounts the in- cidents of this old Apocryphal narrative. As Mr. Taine expresses it : Power in spiritual produc- tions arises only from the sincerity of personal and original sentiment. And if our old Anglo-Saxon forefathers could re- late reliirious tragedies, it was that their very souls were tragic, that their very souls were religious, and in a degree, bibli- cal. Like the old prophets of Tsrael, they introduce into their verses their fierce vehemence, their murderous hatreds, their fanaticism, and all the shudderings of their flesh and blood. And like the old Hebrew prophets they were also in the simplicity and energy of their conception of the Deity.
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Page 10 text:
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2 The Anmial of It fills their whole heart with love and admiration. They are incapable of explaining or restraining their passion, which breaks forth in raptures at the vision of the Almighty. All this enthusiasm and vehemence breaths forth in every line of Judith. None but one of those old Anglo-Saxon bar- barians could have set forth in so strong a light, excesses, tumult, murder, and combat. Take, for example, those vig- orous lines in the latter part of the poem, in which the poet exults over the tragic fate of the tyrant, Holofernes : ' ' Backward his spirit turned, under the abyss, and there was plunged below, with sulphur fastened, forever afterwards to be wounded by worms. Bound in torments, entwined with serpents, hard imprisoned in hell fire he burns, after his death. Nor need he hope, with darkness overwhelmed, that he may escape from that mansion of worms, but there he shall remain forever and ever, without end, in that dark house, free from the joys of hope. Has any one ever heard a more triumphant expression of perfectly satisfied hate ? Then glance down a few lines, and see how their old war- like enthusiasm bursts into flame, when the glory of the He- brew war is recounted : The force approached the Hebrew people, they fought furiousl} ' with their hard weapons, they avenged fiercely, with their bloody swords, their old quarrel, their ancient grudge. The glory of the Assyrians was destroyed on that day, their pride abased. As for their love of the Creator, it breathes forth in every line of the poem. The poet has shown with all of a barba- rian ' s vigor, the grandeur and intensit} of feeling with which the men of his time entered into their new religion. The language of these old poets is always vigorous and sublime. In no poems in any language can there be found more matchless imagery than in these old Anglo-Saxon relics. In their verses, arrows are not simply arrows, but serpents of hell, shot from bows of horn. Ships a ' ' e great sea-steeds. The sea is a chalice of waves, the helmet is the castle of the head. The poets have not satisfied their inner emotion if it is only expressed by a single word. Time after time they return to and repeat their idea, ' ' The sun on high, the great
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