p. 7 | Jacob's Great Grief by Delwin Rees Buckner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 22, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 41.

Jacob's Great Grief

By Delwin Rees Buckner

When Falsely Informed by His Sons that Joseph Had Been Slain by a Wild Beast

By Delwin Rees Buckner

What? Joseph slain? And not a soul to save My darling? Dead? — Yes; lo, his coat, all red With bloody froth, left where the lion fed Before he dragged his fang-scarred bones to pave The paw-pressed trail, tracked to his twilight cave. With Joseph gone, Lord, let me make my bed Within the dark, damp earth; let my hoar head Descend in sorrow to the gaping grave. O, might I kiss once more that boyish face, Snatched from beneath the flesh-fiend's clinching claws! But that can never be — this side the tomb. Would God I'd perished in my Joseph's place, Had choked between the cruel beast's tightening jaws, My nostrils sucking in his scarlet spume.