Miriam

Penina Moïse

1833

Amid the flexile reeds of Nile a lovely infant slept,

While over the unconscious babe his mother watched and wept,

Nor distant far another stood whose tears flowed fast and free,

’Twas Miriam the beautiful, bright star of the sea.

With breaking heart that parent bids farewell to her doomed child,

Commending to Almighty God his spirit undefiled.

The sister lingers yet to mourn o’er tyranny’s decree.

And bitter was thy agony, fair maiden of the sea.

The palace of the Pharaohs now sends forth a noble train,

Thermutis comes, by Heaven led, to break her father’s chain.

And who is that homage yields upon her bended knee?

It is the graceful Miriam, the brightener of the sea.

Trembling she rose and timid stood upon the water’s edge,

When lo! the princess marks the boy slumbering amid the sedge.

A fairy ark and foundling too? ’Tis Fortune’s gift to me,

Joy to the heart of Miriam, the fair star of the sea.

A nurse for this deserted babe, cried Pharaoh’s gentle daughter,

Whose name, my nymphs, shall Moses be, thus rescued from the water.

A woman of the stranger’s race I’ll quickly bring to thee.

Said the delighted Miriam, the day-star of the sea.

She turned aside, nor tarried long, for soon her infant brother,

On the familiar bosom lay of his own Hebrew mother,

And bounding onward by her side, full of triumphant glee,

Went Miriam the beautiful, the bright star of the sea.

Time fleets—the child, to manhood reared, has left his proud abode,

And royalty’s bold protegé has broken Egypt’s rod.

The oracle of Israel has set his nation free!

Then sung melodious Miriam, enlightener of the sea.

But why hast thou at Hazeroth thy timbrel cast aside,

And dared to lift thy voice against the legislator’s bride?

For this shalt thou be smitten, till thy brother’s prayer for thee

Restores again thy loveliness, rash lady of the sea.

A wail is in the wilderness, a deep and solemn wail,

The prophetess who soared beyond mortality’s dark pale,

Has to the spirit’s promised land departed pure and free.

Farewell, inspired Miriam, thou lost star of the sea!

Credits

Penina Moïse, “Miriam,” in The Charleston Book: A Miscellany in Prose and Verse, ed. William Gilmore Simms (Charleston: S. Hart, 1845), 94–95, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101074747187&view=1up&seq=9.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.

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From the Curator

According to the Bible, Miriam rescues her brother Moses from Pharaoh’s decree that all Israelite male children be killed. Moïse’s narrative underscores a partnership between two key women—Moses’ sister Miriam and Pharaoh’s daughter. While drawing heavily from Jewish traditions about Miriam, the poem also adopts the New Testament’s name for Pharaoh's daughter, Thermutis. Moïse’s celebration of the moral victory against Pharaoh’s tyrannical enslavement of the Jews does not seem to have had any impact on the author’s support for the South’s institutions of slavery. Moïse staunchly supported the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Discussion Questions

How does this poem challenge/broaden the gendered telling of the Exodus story?
Why do you think the author referred to Pharaoh’s daughter as Thermutis rather than “the daughter of Pharaoh,” as she is known in the Jewish tradition?
What assumptions may have allowed the author to denounce slavery in ancient Egypt while she supported the same institution in her own society?

Creator Bio

Penina Moïse

1797–1880

Penina Moïse was a poet and educator from Charleston, South Carolina. Even though her formal education ended at age twelve, after her father’s death, she wrote poems and sketches for Jewish and non-Jewish newspapers and was the first American Jewish woman to publish a collection of poetry. Moïse was devoted to Charleston’s vibrant Jewish community. She was the superintendent of Congregation Beth Elohim ’s Sunday school and contributed hymns to the congregation’s religious services, some of which were included in the Reform movement’s Union Hymnal.

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Miriam

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