His watery rays refracted lustre shed,
And pour their latest light on Carmel's head.
Yet shines your praise amid surrounding gloom,
As the lone lamp that trembles in the tomb;
For, few the souls that spurn a tyrant's chain,
And small the bounds of Freedom's scanty reigu.
As the poor outcast on the cheerless wild, (7)
Arabia's parent, clasp'd her fainting child,
And wander'd near the roof, no more her home,
Forbid to linger, yet afraid to roam.
My sorrowing fancy quits the happier height,
And southward throws her half-averted sight;
For sad the scenes Judea's plains disclose,
A dreary waste of undistinguish'd woes:
See war untir'd his crimson pinions spread,
And foul revenge that tramples on the dead!
Lo where from far the guarded fountains shine, (8)
Thy tents, Nebaioth, rise, and, Kedar, thine!
'Tis your's the boast to mark the stranger's way,
And spur your headlong chargers on the prey;
Or rouse your nightly numbers from afar,
And on the hamlet pour the waste of war;
Nor spare the hoary head, nor bid your eye
Revere the sacred smile of infamy..
Such now the clans whole fiery coursers feed
Where waves on Kishon's bank the whisp'ring reed;
And their's the soil, where curling to the skies,
Smokes on Gerizim's Mount Samaria's sacrifice. (9)
While Israel's sons, by scorpion curses driv'n,
Outcasts of earth, and reprobates of heaven,
Through the wide world in friendless exile stray,
Remorse and shame sole comrades of their way,
With dumb despair their country's wrongs behold,
And, dead to glory, only burn for gold.
O Thou, their Guide, their Father, and their Lord, Lov'd for thy mercies,-for thy power ador'd!
(3) The watering places are generally beset with Arabs, who exact toll from all comers.
(9) A miserable remnant of Samaritan worship, still exists.on. Mount Gerizim.
If at thy name the waves forgot their force,
And refluent Jordan sought his trembling source;
If at thy name like sheep the mountains fled,
And haughty Sirion bow'd his marble head ;
To Israel's woes a pitying ear incline,
And raise from earth thy long-neglected vine!
Her rifled fruits behold the heathen bear,
And wild-wood boars her mangled clusters tear.
Was it for this she stretch'd her peopled reign
From far Euphrates to the Western main?
For this o'er many a hill her boughs she threw,
And her wide arms like goodly cedars grew ?
For this proud Edom slept beneath her shade,
And o'er th' Arabian deep her branches play'd?
O feeble boast of transitory power!
Vain fruitless trust of Judah's happier hour!
Not such their hope, when thro' the parted main
The cloudy wonder led the warrior train :
Not such their hope, when thro' the fields of night
The torch of heaven diffus'd its friendly light:
Not when fierce conquest urg'd the onward war,
And hurl'd fierce Canaan from his iron car;
Nor when five monarchs led to Gibeon's fight,
In rude array, the harness'd Amorite;
Yes-in that hour, by mortal accents stay'd,
The lingering sun his fiery wheels delay'd;
The moon, obedient, trembled at the sound,
Curb'd her pale car, and check'd her mazy round.
Let Sinai tell, for she beheld his might,
And God's own darkness veil'd her mystic height:
(He cherub-born, upon the whirlwind rode,
And the red mountain like a furnace glow'd:)
Let Sinai tell-but who shall dare recite
His praise, his power, eternal, infinite?
Awe struck, I cease ;-nor bid my strains aspire,
Or serve his altar with unhallow'd fire.
Such were the cares that watch'd o'er Israel's fate, And such the glories of their infant state.— Triumphant race-and did your power decay? Fail'd the bright promise of your early day? No-by that sword, which red with heathen gore, A giant spoil the stripling champion bore ;
By him, the chief to furthest India known, (1)
The mighty master of the ivory throne;
In heaven's own strength, high tow'ring o'er her foes,
Victorious Salem's lion-banner rose:
Before her footstool prostrate nations lay,
And vassal tyrants crouch'd beneath her sway.
And he, the warrior sage, whose restless mind
Thro' nature's mazes wander'd unconfin'd;
Who every bird and beast, and insect knew,
And speak of ev'ry plant that quaffs the dew;
To him were known, so Hagar's offspring tell-
The powerful sigil and the starry spell;
The midnight call hell's shadowy legions dread,
And sounds that burst the slumbers of the dead.
Hence all his might; for, who could these oppose?
And Tadmor thus, and Syrian Balbec rose. (2)
Yet e'en the works of toiling Genii fall,
And vain was Estakhar's enchanted wall.
In frantic converse with the mournful wind, (3)
There oft the houseless Santon rests reclin'd;
Strange shapes he views, and drinks with wond'ring
The voices of the dead, and songs
Such the faint echo of departed praise,
Still sound Arabia's legendary lays;
And thus their fabling bards delight to tell
How lovely were thy tents, O Israel ?
To thee his ivory load Behemoth bore,
And far Sofala teem'd with golden ore; (4)
Thine all the arts that wait on wealth's increase,
Or bask and wanton in the beam of peace,
(1) Solomon. Ophir is by most geographers placed in the Aurea Chersonesus.
(2) Palmyra, "Tadmor in the desert" was really built by Solomon, I Kings ix.-II. Chron. viii. And universal tradition marks him out with great probability as the founder of Balbec. Estakhar is also attributed to him by the Arabs.
(3) The Santons are real or affected madmen, pretending to extraordinary sanctity, who wander about the country, sleeping in caves or old ruins.
(4) An African port, to the South of Babel-mandel, cele brated for gold mines.
When Tyber slept beneath the cypress gloom,
And Silence held the lonely woods of Rome,
Or e'er to Greece the builder's skill was known,
Or the light chissel brush'd the Parian stone;
Yet e'er fair Science nurs'd her infant fire,
Fann'd by the artist aid of friendly Tyre:
Then tower'd the palace, then in awful state
The temple rear'd its everlasting gate,
No workman steel, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung.
Majestic silence!-then the harp awoke,
The cymbal clang'd, the deep-voic'd trumpet spoke;
And Salem spread her suppliant arms abroad,
View'd the descending flame, and bless'd the present
God.
Nor shrunk she then, when, raging deep and loud,
Beat o'er her soul the billows of the proud. (5)
E'en they who dragg'd to Shinar's fiery sand,
Till'd with reluctant strength the stranger's land;
Who sadly told the slow revolving years,
And steep'd the captive's bitter bread with tears;
Yet oft their hearts with kindling hopes would burn,
Their destin'd triumph's and their glad return:
And their sad lyres, which, silent and unstrung,
In mournful ranks on Babel's willows hung,
Would oft awake to chaunt their future fame,
And from the skies their lingering Saviour claim.
His promis'd aid could every fear controul;
This nerv'd the warrior's arm, this steel'd the martyr's soul!
Nor vain their hope;-bright beaming through the
Burst in full blaze the day-spring from on high;
Earth's utmost isles exulted at the sight,
And crowding nations drank the orient light.
Lo, star-led chiefs Assyrian odours bring,
And bending Magi seek their infant king!
Mark'd ye, where, hovering o'er his radiant head,
The Dove's white wings celestial glory shed?
Daughter of Sion! virgin queen! rejoice!
Clap the glad hand, and lift the exulting voice!
He comes, but not in regal splendor drest,
The haughty diadem, the Syrian vest;
Not arm'd in flame, all glorious from afar,
Of hosts the chieftain, and the lord of war;
Messiah comes:-let furious discord cease;
Be peace on earth before the Prince of Peace!
Disease and anguish feel his blest controul,
And howling fiends release the tortur'd soul;
The beams of gladness hell's dark caves illume,
And mercy broods above the distant gloom.
Thou palsied earth, with noonday-night o'er spread!
Thou sickening sun so dark, so deep, so red!
Ye hovering ghosts that throng the starless air,
Why shakes the earth? Why fades the light? declare!
Are those his limbs with ruthless scourges torn?
His brows all bleeding with the twisted thorn?
His the pale form, the meek, forgiving eye
Rais'd from the cross in patient agony?
-Be dark, thou sun! thou noonday-night, arise!
And hide, Oh hide the dreadful sacrifice!
Ye faithful few, by bold affection led,
Who round the Saviour's cross your sorrows shed,
Not for his sake your tearful vigils keep ;-
Weep for your country, for your children weep! (6)
-Vengeance! thy fiery wing their race pursu'd;
Thy thirsty poniard blush'd with infant blood.
Rous'd at thy call, and panting still for game,
The bird of war, the Latian eagle came.
Then Judah rag'd, by ruffian discord led,
Drunk with the steamy carnage of the dead:
He saw his sons by dubious slaughter fall,
And war without, and death within the wall,
Wide-wasting plague, gaunt famine, mad despair,
And dire debate, and clam'rous strife was there:
Love, strong as death, retain'd his might no more,
And the pale parent drank her children's gore.
Yet they, who wont to roam th' ensanguin'd plain,
And spurn with fell delight their kindred slain;
(6) Luke xxiii. 27. 28.
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