Bible Stories: The Story of Susanna
Susanna was a beautiful dame,
Daughter of Hilkiah;
Her parents had a righteous name,
In Mosaic laws reared, yeah!
A rich man, Joakim, married her;
They lived in Babylon;
Susanna led life in Lord’s fear,
And children too were born.
Adjoining her husband’s big house,
There was a garden fine;
Because Joakim was reputed,
Jews came to meet and dine.
Two elders made new judges then,
Came home with their law-suit;
Joakim was honorable man,
They came to see him oft.
At noon, each day, Susanna walked
Inside the garden near;
The elders eyed her while she strolled;
Their minds desired her.
Perverted soon, they failed to judge
And punished innocents;
Their eyes were always o’er the hedge
They’d lost their common-sense.
And seeing Susanna each noon,
They craved to possess her;
They did not divulge their passion:
Grew evil desire!
Ashamed to tell her of their lust,
They planned to black-mail her;
One day, they parted for food just,
Only met each other.
They hatched a plot to seize her lone,
And threaten her somehow;
Susanna came to bathe alone,
By side-gate, maids did go!
Susanna sent her maids to fetch
Her oil and ointments fast;
They closed the main-gate with good latch,
And left by side-gate past.
They did not see the elders there
Who hid to watch her bathe;
The elders watched her beauty rare:
Came out with plan, they made!
The elders told Susanna then
To lie with them or else,
They would tell she embraced a man,
And testify thus false.
Susanna sighed and deeply thought,
She was so badly caught;
If she did not obey as told,
She must welcome death bold!
She could not sin against the Lord;
Righteous was she by heart;
With grief, she wept and cried to God,
To save her for His part!
She raised a hue and cry therefore;
Elders opened main-gate;
The noise brought servants out of door
‘What terrible a fate! ’
Next day, all met at Joakim’s place,
All sad to hear the tale;
But Susanna wore brave a face;
Her parents stood to wail!
The elders told the false story-
Susanna had a man;
She locked the gate to make merry;
‘To kill her was their plan! ’
They ordered her unveiled to see
Her beauty with lust eyes;
They testified very nicely;
People believed their lies!
When asked, Susanna could not talk;
There was no man with her;
She went to garden to bathe, walk;
She didn’t do one blunder!
The assembly believed the tale:
‘Susanna was to die! ’
Young man Daniel came to her bale:
God heard her plaintive cry!
Susanna lamented to God;
Her people too all wept;
God had sent Daniel to her aid;
‘He proved they had all slept! ’
Elders had borne false witness just,
As they couldn’t have the dame;
Daniel questioned their verdict first,
Vowed to put them to shame!
He separated both elders,
Admonished them for crime;
He spoke to each in words so terse,
And gave them not much time.
He called each one in turn and asked,
“Which was the tree, they saw? ’
In blatant lies, each one had basked,
And answered wrong with awe!
One told it was a mastic tree,
Under which she embraced;
The next told it was an oak-tree,
At Susanna, he gazed.
Daniel exposed their lies clearly;
All heaved sighs of relief;
God stands by innocence truly;
Strong ought to be belief!
Both elders were put to death then,
For bearing false witness;
God doesn’t abandon righteous men,
Supreme is His kindness.
Grew Daniel in reputation;
Innocent blood was spared;
All praised him in admiration;
With wisdom, he had fared.
Adultery is mortal sin;
Who cares for this these days?
The upright people always win-
That’s what, the Bible says!
(4-10-2007)
poem by John Celes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Peter Quince at the Clavier
I.
Just as my fingers on these keys
Make music, so the self-same sounds
On my spirit make a music, too.
Music is feeling, then, not sound;
And thus it is that what I feel,
Here in this room, desiring you,
Thinking of your blue-shadowed silk,
Is music. It is like the strain
Waked in the elders by Susanna;
Of a green evening, clear and warm,
She bathed in her still garden, while
The red-eyed elders, watching, felt
The basses of their beings throb
In witching chords, and their thin blood
Pulse pizzicati of Hosanna.
II.
In the green water, clear and warm,
Susanna lay.
She searched
The touch of springs,
And found
Concealed imaginings.
She sighed,
For so much melody.
Upon the bank, she stood
In the cool
Of spent emotions.
She felt, among the leaves,
The dew
Of old devotions.
She walked upon the grass,
Still quavering.
The winds were like her maids,
On timid feet,
Fetching her woven scarves,
Yet wavering.
A breath upon her hand
Muted the night.
She turned —
A cymbal crashed,
And roaring horns.
III.
Soon, with a noise like tambourines,
Came her attendant Byzantines.
They wondered why Susanna cried
Against the elders by her side;
And as they whispered, the refrain
Was like a willow swept by rain.
Anon, their lamps' uplifted flame
Revealed Susanna and her shame.
And then, the simpering Byzantines
Fled, with a noise like tambourines.
IV.
Beauty is momentary in the mind —
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.
The body dies; the body's beauty lives.
So evenings die, in their green going,
A wave, interminably flowing.
So gardens die, their meek breath scenting
The cowl of winter, done repenting.
So maidens die, to the auroral
Celebration of a maiden's choral.
Susanna's music touched the bawdy strings
Of those white elders; but, escaping,
Left only Death's ironic scraping.
Now, in its immortality, it plays
On the clear viol of her memory,
And makes a constant sacrament of praise.
poem by Wallace Stevens
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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When Sue Wears Red
When Susanna Jones wears red
her face is like an ancient cameo
Turned brown by the ages.
Come with a blast of trumphets, Jesus!
When Susanna Jones wears red
A queen from some time-dead Egyptian night
Walks once again.
Blow trumphets, Jesus!
And the beauty of Susanna Jones in red
Burns in my heart a love-fire sharp like a pain.
Sweet silver trumphets, Jesus!
poem by Langston Hughes
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Susanna
Susanna una bambina tutta colorata
che quando va a ballare sembra un'aranciata
e guarda gi i maschietti
con aria misteriosa
ma quando torna a casa la sera
tutta un'altra cosa.
Susanna balla sempre tutto il pomeriggio
ma non fa molto caso a chi le sta vicino
e quando guarda intorno
muove appena appena gli occhi
con aria fatale
tenuto conto degli anni.
Non si mette le scarpette negli occhi
perch le hanno tutti
e non si lascia affascinare da nessuno
ma sorride a tutti.
Susanna ha la maglietta numero 28
coi ricciolini in testa sembra proprio un confetto
e non sta mai ferma un attimo
gira dappertutto
e quando pensi di fermarla
gi passata da un anno.
Quando sorride ha un'espressione maliziosa che ti fa coraggio
ma poi scompare e non la vedi pi
per tutto il pomeriggio
Susanna una bambina colorata
Susanna un'aranciata....
Susanna una bambina tutta colorata
che quando va a ballare sembra un'aranciata
e se per caso ti vien voglia
di mangiarla tutta
stai attento amico
quella frutta che scotta
attento amico....vacca, l'hai gi rotta!
song performed by by Vasco Rossi
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Bible Stories: Ruth (Part IV)
Boaz Marries Ruth:
As Boaz sat down near the gate,
There came the kinsman whom he sought;
He sat along with elders ten!
Boaz told them of Naomi
Who’d come away from Moab-land
After the death of her husband.
She has a plot of land to sell;
The kinsman had first right to buy,
And if he did, he should redeem
Ruth, widowed daughter-in-law too.
The kinsman told that he could not
And gave up right to redeem Ruth;
The man removed his shoe as sign,
‘Let Boaz buy the plot himself’
This was the practice in Israel! ’
So, Boaz told the elders there:
He had purchased Elimelech’s
And Naomi’s inheritance,
And Ruth, the wife of dead Mahlon.
Would be his new wife from then on.
This was to save the dead one’s kin,
From being cut off from brethren,
And all were witnesses that day,
Who sat to hear the news by gate!
The elders glorified the Lord,
And blessed the new wife of Boaz,
To build her house in Bethlehem,
And bear forth children: be famous
Like Rachel, Leah and too Tamar.
So, Ruth became Boaz’s wife,
And bore a son through grace of God
The women blessed and praised the Lord
Whose kindness saved Naomi’s clan.
Obed was son of Boaz, Ruth
And Naomi became its nurse!
Obed begot Jesse, father of
David, the King: Glory to God!
Copyright by Dr John Celes 4-24-2007
poem by John Celes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I have no wish for a second husband. I had enough of the first. I like to have my own way to lie down mistress, and get up master.
quote by Susanna Moodie
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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We worked so hard we almost stopped enjoying it.
quote by Susanna Hoffs
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When things come to the worse, they generally mend.
quote by Susanna Moodie
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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That was the big lesson for all of us. Everything was going great on paper, but we all became miserable because we were so caught up in the machinery of how you make that happen, it took away the sheer joy.
quote by Susanna Hoffs
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang [Nanny McPhee Makes the Kids Stop Fighting]
Emma Thompson
by Susanna White from Nanny McPhee Returns (2010)
Submitted by Film Fan
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Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang [Nanny McPhee Explains How She Works to the Kids]
Emma Thompson
by Susanna White from Nanny McPhee Returns (2010)
Submitted by Film Fan
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Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.
quote by Susanna Moodie
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My Fore-Elders
When from the child, that still is led
By hand, a father's hand is gone, ---
Or when a few-year'd mother dead
Has left her children growing on, ---
When men have left their children staid,
And they again have boy and maid, ---
O, can they know, as years may roll,
Their children's children, soul by soul?
If this with souls in heaven can be,
Do my fore-elders know of me?
My elders' elders, man and wife,
Were borne full early to the tomb,
With children still in childhood life
To play with butterfly or bloom.
And did they see the seasons mould
Their faces on, from young to old,
As years might bring them, turn by turn,
A time to laugh or time to mourn?
If this with souls in heaven can be,
Do my fore-elders know of me?
How fain I now would walk the floor
Within their mossy porch's bow,
Or linger by their church's door,
Or road that bore them to and fro,
Or nook where once they build their mow,
Or gateway open to their plough
(Though now indeed no gate is swung
That their live hands had ever hung ), ---
If I could know that they would see
Their child's late child, and know of me.
poem by William Barnes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The want of education and moral training is the only real barrier that exists between the different classes of men.
quote by Susanna Moodie
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang [Nanny McPhee Sneaks a Baby Elephant Upstairs]
Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal
by Susanna White from Nanny McPhee Returns (2010)
Submitted by Film Fan
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Oh! Susanna
1 I came from Alabama
2 wid my ban jo on my knee,
3 I'm g'wan to Louisiana,
4 My true love for to see,
6 It raind all night the day I left
7 The weather it was dry,
8 The sun so hot I frose to death
9 Susanna dont you cry.
10 [Chorus] Oh! Susanna Oh! dont you cry for me
11 I've come from Alabama wid mi ban jo on my knee.
12 [Solo] I jumped aboard de telegraph,
13 And trabbelled down de riber,
14 De Lectric fluid magnified,
15 And Killed five Hundred Nigger
16 De bullgine buste, de horse run off,
17 I realy thought I'd die;
18 I shut my eyes to hold my breath,
19 Susana, dont you cry.
20 [Chorus] Oh! Susana Oh! dont you cry for me
21 I've come from Alabama wid mi ban jo on my knee.
22 [Solo] I had a dream de odder night,
23 When ebery ting was still;
24 I thought I saw Susana,
25 A coming down de hill.
26 The buckwheat cake war in her mouth,
27 The tear was in her eye,
28 Says I, im coming from de South,
29 Susana, dont you cry.
30 [Chorus] Oh! Susana Oh! dont you cry for me
31 I've come from Alabama wid mi ban jo on my knee.
32 [Solo] I soon will be in New Orleans,
33 And den I'll look all round,
34 And when I find Susana,
35 I'll fall upon the ground.
36 But if I do not find her,
37 Dis darkie 'l surely die,
38 And when I'm dead and buried,
39 Susana, dont you cry.
40 [Chorus] Oh! Susana Oh! dont you cry for me
41 I've come from Alabama wid mi ban jo on my knee.
poem by Stephen C. Foster
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Large parties given to very young children... foster the passions of vanity and envy, and produce a love of dress and display which is very repulsive in the character of a child.
quote by Susanna Moodie
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ah, Hope what would life be, stripped of thy encouraging smiles, that teach us to look behind the dark clouds of to-day, for the golden beams that are to gild the morrow.
quote by Susanna Moodie
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ah, Hope! what would life be, stripped of thy encouraging smiles, that teach us to look behind the dark clouds of today, for the golden beams that are to gild the morrow.
quote by Susanna Moodie
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Younger Ones
The younger ones,
Do not wish any part of it.
The fragmentation solicited...
Or the family divisiveness.
They have witnessed what the elders have done.
And this has made many of them turn away quick.
Because the younger ones wish,
Not to have any of the negative rifts!
They have witnessed what the elders have done.
And the elders are the ones that do not get it!
The younger ones,
Do not wish any part of this.
In their hearts and in their minds,
The youngers ones may not express it.
But their actions are quite dramatic.
And observing that is obvious and emphatic.
The younger ones have had it!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
Ralph Fiennes, Ewan McGregor, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Thompson, Rhys Ifans
by Susanna White from Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010)
Submitted by Alex
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