RABBI BEN EZRA 
 
SSTS2UI H 
 
BEN EZRA 
 
 A DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE 
 BY ROBERT BROWNING 
 
RABBI* BEN- EZRA 
 
 I 
 
 ROW OLD A< 
 LONG WITH ME: 
 THE BEST IS 
 YET TO BE, 
 THE LAST OF 
 LIFE, FOR 
 WHICH THE 
 FIRST WAS 
 MADE: 
 
 OUR TIMES ARE IN HIS HAND 
 WHO SAITH "A WHOLE 
 I PLANNED, 
 
 YOUTH SHOWS BUT HALF; 
 TRUST GOD: SEE ALL 
 NOR BE AFRAID!" 
 
II 
 
 ^L FOT that, amassing flowers, 
 ^L [ Youthsighed, "Whichrose 
 
 ^Lj make ours, 
 
 * Wliich lily leave and then 
 
 as beSt recall?" 
 Not that, admiring Stars, 
 It yearned, "Nor Jove, nor Mars; 
 Mine be some figured flame 
 
 which blends, transcends them all ! 
 
 1 m 
 
 Not for suck hopes and fears 
 Annulling youth's brief years, 
 Do I remonstrate : folly wide the mark ! 
 Rather I prize the doubt 
 Low kinas exist without, 
 Finished and finite clods, 
 untroubled by a spark. 
 
IV 
 
 Poor vaunt of life indeed, 
 \Vere man but formed to feed 
 On joy, to solely seek and find 
 
 andfea^l: 
 
 Such feasting ended, then 
 As sure an end to men; 
 Irks care the crop'full bird? Frets 
 
 doubt the mawcrammed bea^t? 
 
 V 
 
 REJOICE we are allied 
 To That which doth provide 
 And not partake, effedl and not 
 
 receive ! 
 
 A spark disturbs our clod; 
 Nearer we hold of God 
 Wlio gives, than of His tribes 
 that take, I mu^l believe, 
 b 
 
VI 
 
 Then, welcome each rebuff 
 That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
 Each ^fcing that bids nor sit nor 
 
 butg 
 
 O! 
 
 Be our joys three^parts pain! 
 Strive, and hold cheap the Strain; 
 Learn, nor account the pang; dare, 
 never grudge the throe ! 
 
 VII 
 
 For thence, a paradox 
 "Which comforts while it mocks, 
 Shall life succeed in that it seems 
 
 to fail: 
 
 WTiat I aspired to be, 
 And was not, comforts me : 
 A brute I might have been, 
 
 but would not sink T the scale J 
 
VIII 
 VI 7H AT is he but a brute 
 
 VV ^/liose flesh has soul to suit, 
 ^A^hose spirit works le^t arms 
 
 and legs want play? 
 To man, propose this te& 
 Thy body at its bei&, 
 How far can that projedt thy soul 
 on its lone way ? 
 
 IX 
 
 Yet gifts should prove their use : 
 I own the Pa& profuse 
 Of power each side, perfection 
 
 every turn: 
 
 Eyes, ears took in their dole, 
 Brain treasured up the whole; 
 Should not the heart beat once 
 
 "How good to live and learn ?" 
 
X 
 
 Not once beat "Praise be Thine! 
 
 I see the whole design, 
 
 I, who saw power, see now 
 
 Love perfedl too : 
 Perfedl I call Thy plan : 
 Thanks that I was a man ! 
 Maker, remake, complete, 
 
 I tru^t what Thou shalt do ! " 
 
 XI 
 
 "\DR pleasant is this flesh; 
 1 Our soul, in its rose*mesh 
 Pulled ever to the earth, ^till yearns 
 
 forreiA: 
 
 \^ould we some prize might hold 
 To match those manifold 
 Possessions of the brute, gain mo^t, 
 as we did be^t ! 
 
XII 
 
 Let us not always say, 
 
 "Spite of this flesh to-day 
 
 I Strove, made head, gained ground 
 
 upon the whole ! " 
 As the bird wings and sings, 
 Let us cry, "All good things 
 Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, 
 
 now, than flesh helps soul!" 
 
 XIII ^ 
 
 THEREFORE I summon age 
 To grant youth's heritage, 
 Life's Struggle having so far 
 reached its term: 
 Thence shall I pass, approved 
 A man, for aye removed 
 From the developed brute; a God 
 though in the germ. 
 
XIV 
 
 And I shall thereupon 
 Take rei&, ere I be gone 
 Once more on my adventure 
 
 brave and new: 
 Fearless and unperplexed, 
 Wlien I wage battle next, 
 V/hat weapons to seledl, 
 
 what armor to indue. 
 
 XV 
 
 Youth ended, I shall try 
 My gain or loss thereby; 
 Leave the fire ashes, what survives 
 
 is gold: 
 
 And I shall weigh the same, 
 Give life its praise or blame : 
 Young, all lay in dispute; I 
 
 shall know, being old. 
 
XVI 
 
 TT'OR note, when evening shuts, 
 JL A certain moment cuts 
 The deed off, calls the glory 
 
 from the grey : 
 A whisper from the we^t 
 Shoots " Add this to the rei, 
 Take it and try its worth: here dies 
 
 another day/' 
 
 XVII 
 
 So, ^lill within this life, 
 Though lifted o'er its Strife, 
 Let me discern, compare, 
 
 pronounce at la^t, 
 "This rage was right i the main, 
 That acquiescence vain: 
 The Future I may face now I 
 
 have proved the 
 
XVIII 
 
 For more is not reserved 
 
 To man, with soul ju^t nerved 
 
 To adl to*morrow what he learns 
 
 to-day: 
 
 Here, work enough to watch 
 The Master work, and catch 
 Hints of the proper craft, tricks of 
 
 the tool's true play. 
 
 XIX 
 
 As it was better, youth 
 Should &rive, through adts uncouth, 
 Toward making, than repose 
 
 on aught found made : 
 So, better, age, exempt 
 From Strife, should know-, than tempt 
 Further. Thou waited^ age : 
 
 wait death nor be afraid! 
 
XX 
 
 Enough now, if the Right 
 
 And Good and Infinite 
 
 Be named here, as thou called 
 
 thy hand thine own, 
 With knowledge absolute, 
 Subjedl to no dispute 
 From fools that crowded youth, 
 
 nor let thee feel alone. 
 
 XXI 
 
 BE there, for once and all, 
 Severed great minds from small, 
 Announced to each his 
 Nation in the Pasft! 
 Was I, the world arraigned, 
 Were they, my soul disdained, 
 Right? Let age speak the truth 
 and give us peace at 
 
XXII 
 
 Now, who shall arbitrate? 
 Ten men love what I hate, 
 Shun what I follow, slight what I 
 
 receive; 
 
 Ten, who in ears and eyes 
 Match me: we all surmise, 
 They this thing, and I that: 
 
 whom shall my soul believe ? 
 
 XXIII 
 
 Not on the vulgar mass 
 Called " work," mu^l sentence pass, 
 Things done, that took the eye 
 
 and had the price; 
 O'er which, from level inland, 
 The low world laid its hand, 
 Found Straightway to its mind, 
 
 could value in a trice : 
 
XXIV 
 
 But all, the world's coarse thumb 
 And finger failed to plumb, 
 So passed in making up the main 
 
 account ; 
 
 All in^tindts immature, 
 All purposes unsure, 
 That weighed not as his work, 
 
 yet swelled the man's amount: 
 
 XXV 
 
 Thoughts hardly to be packed 
 Into a narrow adt, 
 Fancies that broke through language 
 
 and escaped; 
 All I could never be, 
 All, men ignored in me, 
 This, I was worth to God, 
 
 whose wheel the pitcher 
 
 shaped. 
 
XXVI 
 
 JL Y, note that Potter's wheel, 
 /^L That metaphor ! and feel 
 /pJ^ V/hy time spins fa&, why 
 * _ _ Mil passive lies our clay, 
 Thou, to whom fools propound, 
 \Vhen the wine makes its round, 
 "Since life fleets, all is change; 
 
 the Pa^t gone, seize to*day!" 
 
 XXVII 
 
 Fool! All that is, at all, 
 La^ts ever, pa^t recall; 
 Earth changes, but thy soul and God 
 
 i&and sure : 
 
 Wliat entered into thee, 
 THAT was, is, and shall be : 
 Time's wheel runs back or i&ops: 
 
 Potter and clay endure. 
 
XXVIII 
 
 He fixed thee 'mid this dance 
 Of plastic circumstance, 
 This Present, thou, forsooth, 
 
 wouldst fain arrest: 
 Machinery juSt meant 
 To give thy soul its bent, 
 Try thee and turn thee forth, 
 
 sufficiently impressed. 
 
 XXIX r 
 
 V/hat though the earlier grooves 
 V/hich ran the laughing loves 
 Around thy base, no longer 
 
 pause and press? 
 \Vhat though, about thy rim, 
 Skull^things in order grim 
 Grow out, in graver mood, 
 
 obey the Sterner Stress? 
 
XXX 
 
 Look not thou down but up ! 
 
 To uses of a cup, 
 
 The festal board, lamp's flash 
 
 and trumpet's peal, 
 The new wine's foaming flow, 
 The Master's lips aglow ! 
 Thou, heaven's consummate cup, 
 
 what need^t thou with 
 
 earth's wheel? 
 
 XXXI ^ 
 
 BUT I need, now as then, 
 Thee, God, who moulded men; 
 And since, not even while the 
 
 whirl was wor^l, 
 Did I, to the wheel of life 
 With shapes and colors rife, 
 Bound dizzily , mistake my end, 
 to slake Thy thirst: 
 
XXXII 
 
 So, take and use Thy work: 
 Amend what flaws may lurk, 
 What Strain o' the &ufF, 
 
 what warpings pa& the aim! 
 My times be in Thy hand ! 
 Perfed: the cup as planned ! 
 Let age approve or youth, 
 
 and death complete the same ! 
 
V \ 7OE unto them that seek to hide 
 \\f their counsel from the LORD, 
 and their works are in the dark, and 
 they say, Who seeth us? and who 
 knoweth us ? 
 
 Ye turn things upside down! Shall 
 the potter be counted as clay; that the 
 thing made should say of him that 
 made it, He made me not; or the thing 
 framed say of him that framed it, He 
 hath no understanding? 
 
 Isaiah xxix: 1,16 
 
NOTE 
 
 BROWNING was pre-eminently 
 the prophet among the poets of 
 the XIX. Century. Born into a time 
 distraught by spiritual revolution & 
 doubt, living in an age half blinded by 
 the du^l of crumbling traditions and 
 beliefs, his is the one clear voice that 
 rises unfalteringly above the turmoil. 
 He believed in God & in the capacity 
 of the human soul to attain, through 
 the barriers of the flesh, the threshold 
 of heaven. And so intense was his 
 convidlion, that it has broken the 
 clouds for thousands & enabled them 
 to "greet the unseen with a cheer/' 
 This loftily prophetic note, this ex* 
 alted proclamation that ' ' God is in his 
 
 a 
 
heaven," and that "all which errs 
 is but a dream" to be dissipated by 
 death, surging through all of his 
 poems, from Pauline to Asolando, 
 attains its culminating power in the 
 Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 
 "Men and Women," and 4 ' Dramatis 
 Personae." Among the laift of these 
 groups, published in 1864, Rabbi Ben 
 Ezra appeared. Taken all in all, it is 
 probably the moi& adequate expres* 
 sion of his religious convidtion that 
 Browning has left. Excepting only 
 Tennyson's "Ancient Sage," which 
 through its mystic minor tones 
 breathes an equally authoritative in* 
 spiration, Rabbi Ben Ezra is perhaps 
 the noblest psalm in English verse. 
 
 R.B. 
 
Here ends RABBI BEN EZRA, 
 a Dramatic Monologue written by 
 Robert Browning, with a note by 
 Robert Bruere. Printed by hand at 
 The Village Press, Hingham, Massa* 
 chusetts, by Fred and Bertha Goudy . 
 Frontispiece and decorations design* 
 ed & cut on wood by Will Dwiggins. 
 
 One hundred seventy three copies 
 printed, November 1904. 
 
 For sale at The Village Press 
 
 ff 
 
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