[after Howard Fast's eponymous novel]
The monster of slavery will, someday, be slain;
the loud mouth of tyranny will, someday, fall dumb;
an end to despair, to perfidy, and to pain
will---in Another's good timing and offices---come.
Life will be blessed, no longer a dying loss;
no longer will death and the burial ditch boast gain;
but this, somehow, will be achieved on a cross
like mine; and the world's grim hour will wane.
Starward
Author's Notes/Comments:
Line 4: Galatians 4:4.
Line 6: 1 Corinthians 15:55
Line 7: 1 Corinthians 1:18
Line 8: John 16:32-33
Line 4 also alludes to the threefold office of Christ---as priest, prophet, and king---as first expressed theologically by Euseibus Caesarea, on whose Historia Ecclesiastica I wrote my senior thesis in college; although I did not know, until now, that he had first expressed the threefold office of Christ.
Line 6 alludes to the Roman practice, in Judea, of tossing into ditches the corpses of those who had been crucified. Marj's Gospe, in chapter 15:42-47 indicate that the manner of Christ's burial was somewhat different, due to the invervention of Joseph Arimathea, who demanded Pontius Pilate to order the release the body of Jesus for decent burial.
Admittedly, Sparticus' manner of death, and his last moments of life, are not documented by historical texts. I accede to How Fast's fictional speculation, very dramatically presented in the movie based upon his novel, for the setting of my poem.
