Excerpt from The Foolishness of Solomon

It was the month Bul of his reign's twelfth year. Already through all kingdoms far and near The rumour of his glory had gone forth, Of his might, wisdom, justice, wealth and worth. At length complete the Temple testified To its builder's sumptuous piety, and his pride. Yet large and generous, nor to be confined To one sole jealous worship was his mind. This the stern elders of good David's reign Viewing with grave surprise and righteous pain, Would oft wag ancient beards and murmuring nod, Because less perfect with the Lord his God Was the son's than the father's heart had been. For first to gratify his best-loved queen, The Pharaoh Shishak's daughter, at her prayer (who could deny a suppliant so fair? Not Solomon!) within the pleasure-house Which he had built for dalliance with his spouse, He bade construct a little private shrine To Theban Ammon, and that Bull divine, Memphian Apis, and around the cell Fair chambers, where their white-robed priests might dwell, An alien troupe, with shaven crown and chin, Oh scandal Nor yet ended there his sin. From Rabba with another gentle bride Came Milcom, the Ammonite infanticide. To Chemosh next, of deities most obscene, Moab's abomination, to the Queen Of Heaven, moon-crowned Sidonian Ashtoreth, Who for her lover Thammuz' wound and death Laments with annual passion each new Spring.

To all these and many more the uxorious king Built altars and high-places, groves and shrines; Nor was there one of all his concubines, Even the meanest and the least esteemed, Who might not, in such privacy as beseemed, Freely adore the gods of her own land. Largeness of heart, yea even as the sand That is on the sea-shore, was Solomon's. Throned thus in pride he sat and gave response In subtle parable, or proverb terse, Clear or obscure, in prose or weightier verse To the wise men of every race and clime, Who to behold the wonder of their time, With problems and hard questions infinite In trial of his knowledge and his wit, Flocked to Jerusalem from far and near. Ethan the Ezrahite, Asaph the seer, The learned sons of Mahol, Heman named, Chalcol and Darda, throughout Israel famed For medical and astrologic lore, Agur and Lemuel, these and many more, Egyptian sorcerers, Babylonian mages, India's holiest, most emaciate sages, Their dark enigmas each in turn propounded, And each in turn withdrew, shamed and confounded By wisdom so much vaster than their own, That to its godlike glance all things unknown Or known on Earth, in Heaven or Hell concealed, Seemed the same instant naked and revealed. The crowd stood listening with amazement dumb, Or murmured with discreet admiring hum For never had they heard before that hour Even Solomon himself with such a power And plenitude of eloquence dispute, Nor with such subtlety and grace confute His interlocutors. Yet the crowd's applause, Though it might flatter, was not the sole cause Of so superb and brilliant a display.

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