The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles Volume I Part 24

He paused; when on his lonely pathway flashed A light, and sounds as of approaching wings Instant were heard. A radiant form appeared, Celestial, and with heavenly accent said: Noah, I come commissioned from above, 260 Where angels move before th' eternal throne Of heaven's great King in glory, to dispel The mists of darkness from thy sight; for know, Not unpermitted of th' Eternal One The shadows of thy melancholy dream Hung o'er thee slumbering: Mine the task to show Futurity's faint scene;--now follow me.

He said; and up to the unclouded height Of that great Eastern mountain,[157] that surveys Dim Asia, they ascended. Then his brow 270 The Angel touched, and cleared with whispered charm The mortal mist before his eyes.--At once (As in the skiey mirage, when the seer From lonely Kilda's western summit sees A wondrous scene in shadowy vision rise) The NETHER WORLD, with seas and sh.o.r.es, appeared Submitted to his view: but not as then, A melancholy waste, deform and sad; But fair as now the green earth spreads, with woods, Champaign, and hills, and many winding streams 280 Robed, the magnificent illusion rose.

He saw in mazy longitude devolved The mighty Brahma-Pooter; to the East Thibet and China, and the s.h.i.+ning sea That sweeps the inlets of j.a.pan, and winds Amid the Curile and Aleutian isles, Pale to the north. Siberia's snowy scenes Are spread; Jenisca and the freezing Ob Appear, and many a forest's shady track Far as the Baltic, and the utmost bounds 290 Of Scandinavia; thence the eye returns: And lo! great Lebanon--abrupt and dark With pines, and airy Carmel, rising slow Above the midland main, where hang the capes Of Italy and Greece; swart Africa, Beneath the parching sun, her long domain Reveals, the mountains of the Moon, the source Of Nile, the wild mysterious Niger, lost Amid the torrid sands; and to the south Her stormy cape. Beyond the misty main 300 The weary eye scarce wanders, when behold Plata, through vaster territory poured; And Andes, sweeping the horizon's tract, Mightiest of mountains! whose eternal snows Feel not the nearer sun; whose umbrage chills The murmuring ocean; whose volcanic fires A thousand nations view, hung like the moon High in the middle waste of heaven; thy range, Shading far off the Southern hemisphere, A dusky file t.i.tanic. 310 So spread Before our great forefather's view the globe Appeared; with seas, and shady continents, And verdant isles, and mountains lifting dark Their forests, and indenting rivers, poured In silvery maze. And, Lo! the Angel said, These scenes, O Noah, thy posterity Shall people; but remote and scattered wide, They shall forget their G.o.d, and see no trace, Save dimly, of their Great Original. 320 Rude caves shall be their dwellings: till, with noise Of mult.i.tudes, imperial cities rise.

But the Arch Fiend, the foe of G.o.d and man, Shall fling his spells; and, 'mid illusions drear, Blear Superst.i.tion shall arise, the earth Eclipsing.--Deep in caves,[158] vault within vault Far winding; or in night of thickest woods, Where no bird sings; or 'mid huge circles gray Of uncouth stone, her aspect wild, and pale As the terrific flame that near her burns, 330 She her mysterious rites, 'mid hymns and cries, Shall wake, and to her shapeless idols, vast And smeared with blood, or shrines of l.u.s.t, shall lead Her votaries, maddening as she waves her torch, With visage more expanded, to the groans Of human sacrifice.

Nor think that love And happiness shall dwell in vales remote: The naked man shall see the glorious sun, And think it but enlightens his poor isle, 340 Hid in the watery waste; cold on his limbs The ocean-spray shall beat; his Deities Shall be the stars, the thunder, and the winds; And if a stranger on his rugged sh.o.r.es Be cast, his offered blood shall stain the strand.

O wretched man! who then shall raise thee up From this thy dark estate, forlorn and lost?

The Patriarch said.

The Angel answered mild, His G.o.d, who destined him to n.o.blest ends! 350 But mutual intercourse shall stir at first The sunk and grovelling spirit, and from sleep The sullen energies of man rouse up, As of a slumbering giant. He shall walk Sublime amid the works of G.o.d: the earth Shall own his wide dominion; the great sea Shall toss in vain its roaring waves; his eye Shall scan the bright orbs as they roll above Glorious, and his expanding heart shall burn, As wide and wider in magnificence 360 The vast scene opens; in the winds and clouds, The seas, and circling planets, he shall see The shadow of a dread Almighty move.

Then shall the Dayspring rise, before whose beam The darkness of the world is past:--For, hark!

Seraphs and angel-choirs with symphonies Acclaiming of ten thousand golden harps, Amid the bursting clouds of heaven revealed, At once, in glory jubilant, they sing-- G.o.d the Redeemer liveth! He who took 370 Man's nature on him, and in human shroud Veiled his immortal glory! He is risen!

G.o.d the Redeemer liveth! And behold!

The gates of life and immortality Open to all that breathe!

Oh, might the strains But win the world to love; meek Charity Should lift her looks and smile; and with faint voice The weary pilgrim of the earth exclaim, As close his eye-lids--Death, where is thy sting? 380 O Grave, where is thy victory?

And ye, Whom ocean's melancholy wastes divide, Who slumber to the sullen surge, awake, Break forth into thanksgiving, for the bark That rolled upon the desert deep, shall bear The tidings of great joy to all that live, Tidings of life and light.

Oh, were those men, (The Patriarch raised his drooping looks, and said) 390 Such in my dream I saw, who to the isles And peaceful sylvan scenes o'er the wide seas Came tilting; then their murderous instruments Lifted, that flashed to the indignant sun, Whilst the poor native died:--Oh, were those men Instructed in the laws of holier love, Thou hast displayed?

The Angel meek replied-- Call rather fiends of h.e.l.l those who abuse The mercies they receive: that such, indeed, 400 On whom the light of clearer knowledge beams, Should wander forth, and for the tender voice Of charity should scatter crimes and woe, And drench, where'er they pa.s.s, the earth with blood, Might make ev'n angels weep: But the poor tribes That groaned and died, deem not them innocent As injured; more ensanguined rites and deeds Of deepest stain were theirs; and what if G.o.d, So to approve his justice, and exact 410 Most even retribution, blood for blood, Bid forth the Angel of the storm of death!

Thou saw'st, indeed, the seeming innocence Of man the savage; but thou saw'st not all.

Behold the scene more near! hear the shrill whoop Of murderous war! See tribes on neighbour tribes Rush howling, their red hatchets wielding high, And shouting to their barbarous G.o.ds! Behold The captive bound, yet vaunting direst hate, And mocking his tormentors, while they gash 420 His flesh unshrinking, tear his eyeb.a.l.l.s, burn His beating breast! Hear the dark temples ring To groans and hymns of murderous sacrifice; While the stern priest, the rites of horror done, With hollow-echoing chaunt lifts up the heart Of the last victim 'mid the yelling throng, Quivering, and red, and reeking to the sun![159]

Reclaimed by gradual intercourse, his heart Warmed with new sympathies, the forest-chief Shall cast the bleeding hatchet to his G.o.ds 430 Of darkness, and one Lord of all adore-- Maker of heaven and earth.

Let it suffice, He hath permitted EVIL for a while To mingle its deep hues and sable shades Amid life's fair perspective, as thou saw'st Of late the blackening clouds; but in the end All these shall roll away, and evening still Come smilingly, while the great sun looks down On the illumined scene. So Charity 440 Shall smile on all the earth, and Nature's G.o.d Look down upon his works; and while far off The shrieking night-fiends fly, one voice shall rise From sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e, from isle to furthest isle-- Glory to G.o.d on high, and on earth peace, Peace and good-will to men!

Thou rest in hope, And Him with meekness and with trust adore!

He said, and spreading bright his ampler wing, Flew to the heaven of heavens; the meek man bowed Adoring, and, with pensive thoughts resigned, Bent from the aching height his lonely way.

[153] See Camoens' description of the dreadful Phantom at the Cape of Good Hope.

[154] Part of the mountainous range of the vast Indian Caucasus, where the Ark rested.

[155] Forster says the miserable creatures who visited the s.h.i.+p in the Straits of Magellan, seldom uttered any other word than "Pa.s.seray"--hence the name of Pecherais was given to them.

[156] From Dariena to Nicaragua, the Spaniards slew 400,000 people with dogs, sword, fire, and divers tortures.--_Purchas._

[157] That tremendous Caff (according to the Indian superst.i.tion) inhabited by spirits, demons, and the griffin Simorg.

[158] The caves of Elephanta and Salsette.

[159] At the dedication of the temple of Vitzuliputzli, A.D. 1486, 64,080 human victims were sacrificed in four days.

BOOK THE SECOND.

Oh for a view, as from that cloudless height Where the great Patriarch gazed upon the world, His offspring's future seat, back on the vale Of years departed! We might then behold Thebes, from her sleep of ages, awful rise, Like an imperial shadow, from the Nile, To airy harpings;[160] and with lifted torch Scatter the darkness through the labyrinths Of death, where rest her kings, without a name, And light the winding caves and pyramids 10 In the long night of years! We might behold Edom, in towery strength, majestic rise, And awe the Erithraean, to the plains Where Migdol frowned, and Baal-zephon stood,[161]

Before whose naval shrine the Memphian host And Pharaoh's pomp were shattered! As her fleets From Ezion went seaward, to the sound Of shouts and brazen trumpets, we might say, 18 How glorious, Edom, in thy s.h.i.+ps art thou, And mighty as the rus.h.i.+ng winds!

But night Is on the mournful scene: a voice is heard, As of the dead, from hollow sepulchres, And echoing caverns of the Nile--So pa.s.s The shades of mortal glory! One pure ray From Sinai bursts (where G.o.d of old revealed His glory, through the darkness terrible That sat on the dread Mount), and we descry Thy sons, O Noah! peopling wide the scene, From s.h.i.+nar's plain to Egypt. 30 Let the song Reveal, who first "went down to the great sea In s.h.i.+ps," and braved the stormy element.

THE SONS OF CUSH.[162] Still fearful of the FLOOD, They on the marble range and cloudy heights Of that vast mountain barrier,--which uprises High o'er the Red Sea coast, and stretches on With the sea-line of Afric's southern bounds To Sofala,--delved in the granite ma.s.s Their dark abode, spreading from rock to rock 40 Their subterranean cities, whilst they heard, Secure, the rains of vexed Orion rush.

Emboldened they descend, and now their fanes On Egypt's champaign darken, whilst the noise Of caravans is heard, and pyramids In the pale distance gleam. Imperial THEBES Starts, like a giant, from the dust; as when Some dread enchanter waves his wand, and towers And palaces far in the sandy wilds Spring up: and still, her sphinxes, huge and high, 50 Her marble wrecks colossal, seem to speak The work of some great arm invisible, Surpa.s.sing human strength; while toiling Time, That sways his desolating scythe so vast, And weary havoc murmuring at his side, Smite them in vain. Heard ye the mystic song Resounding from her caverns as of yore?

Sing to Osiris,[163] for his ark No more in night profound Of ocean, fathomless and dark, 60 Typhon[164] has sunk! Aloud the sistrums ring-- Osiris!--to our G.o.d Osiris sing!-- And let the midnight sh.o.r.e to rites of joy resound!

Thee, great restorer of the world, the song Darkly described, and that mysterious shrine That bore thee o'er the desolate abyss, When the earth sank with all its noise!

So taught, The borderers of the Erithraean launch'd Their barks, and to the sh.o.r.es of Araby 70 First their brief voyage stretched, and thence returned With aromatic gums, or spicy wealth Of India. Prouder triumphs yet await, For lo! where Ophir's gold unburied s.h.i.+nes New to the sun; but perilous the way, O'er Ariana's[165] spectred wilderness, Where ev'n the patient camel scarce endures The long, long solitude of rocks and sands, Parched, faint, and sinking, in his mid-day course.

But see! upon the sh.o.r.e great Ammon[166] stands-- 80 Be the deep opened! At his voice the deep Is opened; and the shading s.h.i.+ps that ride With statelier masts and ampler hulls the seas, Have pa.s.sed the Straits, and left the rocks and GATES OF DEATH.[167] Where Asia's cape the autumnal surge Throws blackening back, beneath a hollow cove, Awhile the mariners their fearful course Ponder, ere yet they tempt the further deep; Then plunged into the sullen main, they cast The youthful victim, to the dismal G.o.ds 90 Devoted, whilst the smoke of sacrifice Slowly ascends: Hear, King of Ocean! hear, Dark phantom! whether in thy secret cave Thou sittest, where the deeps are fathomless, Nor hear'st the waters hum, though all above Is uproar loud; or on the widest waste, Far from all land, mov'st in the noontide sun, With dread and lonely shadow; or on high Dost ride upon the whirling spires, and fume 100 Of that enormous volume, that ascends Black to the skies, and with the thunder's roar Bursts, while the waves far on are still: Oh, hear, Dread power, and save! lest hidden eddies whirl The helpless vessels down,--down to the deeps Of night, where thou, O Father of the Storm, Dost sleep; or thy vast stature might appear High o'er the flas.h.i.+ng waves, and (as thy beard Streamed to the cloudy winds) pa.s.s o'er their track, And they are seen no more; or monster-birds 110 Darkening, with pennons lank, the morn, might bear The victims to some desert rock, and leave Their scattered bones to whiten in the winds!

The Ocean-G.o.ds, with sacrifice appeased, Propitious smile; the thunder's roar has ceased, Smooth and in silence o'er the azure realm The tall s.h.i.+ps glide along; for the South-West Cheerly and steady blows, and the blue seas Beneath the shadow sparkle; on they speed, The long coast varies as they pa.s.s from cove 120 To sheltering cove, the long coast winds away; Till now emboldened by the unvarying gale, Still urging to the East, the sailors deem Some G.o.d inviting swells their willing sails, Or Destiny's fleet dragons through the surge Cut their mid-way, yoked to the beaked prows Unseen!

Night after night the heavens' still cope, That glows with stars, they watch, till morning bears Airs of sweet fragrance o'er the yellow tide: 130 Then Malabar her green declivities Hangs beauteous, beaming to the eye afar Like scenes of pictured bliss, the shadowy land Of soft enchantment. Now Salmala's peak s.h.i.+nes high in air, and Ceylon's dark green woods Beneath are spread; while, as the strangers wind Along the curving sh.o.r.es, sounds of delight Are heard; and birds of richest plumage, red And yellow, glance along the shades; or fly With morning twitter, circling o'er the mast, 140 As singing welcome to the weary crew.

Here rest, till westering gales again invite.

Then o'er the line of level seas glide on, As the green deities of ocean guide, Till Ophir's distant hills spring from the main, And their long labours cease.

Hence Asia slow Her length unwinds; and Siam and Ceylon Through wider channels pour their gems and gold To swell the pomp of Egypt's kings, or deck 150 With new magnificence the rising dome[168]

Of Palestine's imperial lord.

His wants To satisfy; "with comelier draperies"

To clothe his s.h.i.+vering form; to bid his arm Burst, like the Patagonian's,[169] the vain cords That bound his untried strength; to nurse the flame Of wider heart-enn.o.bling sympathies;-- For this young Commerce roused the energies Of man; else rolling back, stagnant and foul, 160 Like the GREAT ELEMENT on which his s.h.i.+ps Go forth, without the currents, winds, and tides That swell it, as with awful life, and keep From rank putrescence the long-moving ma.s.s: And He, the sovereign Maker of the world, So to excite man's high activities, Bad various climes their various produce pour.

On Asia's plain mark where the cotton-tree Hangs elegant its golden gems; the date Sits purpling the soft lucid haze, that lights 170 The still, pale, sultry landscape; breathing sweet Along old Ocean's billowy marge, the eve Bears spicy fragrance far; the bread-fruit shades The southern isles; and gems, and richest ore, Lurk in the caverned mountains of the west.

With ampler shade the northern oak uplifts His strength, itself a forest, and descends Proud to the world of waves, to bear afar The wealth collected, on the swelling tides, To every land:--Where nature seems to mourn 180 Her rugged outcast rocks, there Enterprise Leaps up; he gazes, like a G.o.d, around; He sees on other plains rich harvests wave; He marks far off the diamond blaze; he burns To reach the glittering prize; he looks; he speaks; The pines of Lebanon fall at his voice; He rears the towering mast: o'er the long main He wanders, and becomes, himself though poor, The sovereign of the globe!

So Sidon rose; 190 And Tyre, yet prouder o'er the subject waves,-- When in his manlier might the Ammonian spread Beyond Philistia to the Syrian sands,-- Crowned on her rocky citadel, beheld The treasures of all lands poured at her feet.

Her daring prows the inland main disclosed; Freedom and Glory, Eloquence, and Arts, Follow their track, upspringing where they pa.s.sed; Till, lo! another Thebes, an ATHENS springs, From the aegean sh.o.r.es, and airs are heard, 200 As of no mortal melody, from isles That strew the deep around! On to the STRAITS Where tower the brazen pillars[170] to the clouds, Her vessels ride. But what a s.h.i.+vering dread Quelled their bold hopes, when on their watch by night The mariners first saw the distant flames Of aetna, and its red portentous glare Streaking the midnight waste! 'Tis not thy lamp, Astarte, hung in the dun vault of night, To guide the wanderers of the main! Aghast 210 They eye the fiery cope, and wait the dawn.

Huge pitchy clouds upshoot, and bursting fires Flash through the horrid volume as it mounts; Voices are heard, and thunders muttering deep.

Haste, s.n.a.t.c.h the oars, fly o'er the glimmering surge-- Fly far--already louder thunders roll, And more terrific flames arise! Oh, spare, Dread Power! for sure some deity abides Deep in the central earth, amidst the reek Of sacrifice and blue sulphureous fume 220 Involved. Perhaps the living Moloch[171] there Rules in his horrid empire, amid flames, Thunders, and blackening volumes, that ascend And wrap his burning throne!

So was their path, To those who first the cheerless ocean roamed, Darkened with dread and peril. Scylla here, And fell Charybdis, on their whirling gulph Sit, like the sisters of Despair, and howl, As the devoted s.h.i.+p, dashed on the crags, 230 Goes down: and oft the neighbour sh.o.r.es are strewn With bones of strangers sacrificed, whose bark Has foundered nigh, where the red watch-tower glares Through darkness. Hence mysterious dread, and tales Of Polyphemus and his monstrous rout; And warbling syrens on the fatal sh.o.r.es Of soft Parthenope. Yet oft the sound Of sea-conch through the night from some rude rock Is heard, to warn the wandering pa.s.senger Of fiends that lurk for blood! 240 These dangers past, The sea puts on new beauties: Italy, Beneath the blue soft sky beaming afar, Opens her azure bays; Liguria's gulph Is past; the Baetic rocks, and ramparts high, That CLOSE THE WORLD, appear. The das.h.i.+ng bark Bursts through the fearful frith: Ah! all is now One boundless billowy waste; the huge-heaved wave Beneath the keel turns more intensely blue; And vaster rolls the surge, that sweeps the sh.o.r.es 250 Of Cerne, and the green Hesperides, And long-renowned Atlantis,[172] whether sunk Now to the bottom of the "monstrous world;"

Or was it but a shadow of the mind, Vapoury and baseless, like the distant clouds That seem the promise of an unknown land To the pale-eyed and wasted mariner, Cold on the rocking mast. The pilot plies, Now tossed upon Bayonna's mountain-surge, High to the north his way; when, lo! the cliffs 260 Of Albion, o'er the sea-line rising calm And white, and Marazion's woody mount Lifting its dark romantic point between.

So did thy s.h.i.+ps to Earth's wide bounds proceed, O Tyre! and thou wert rich and beautiful In that thy day of glory. Carthage rose, Thy daughter, and the rival of thy fame, Upon the sands of Lybia; princes were Thy merchants; on thy golden throne thy state Shone, like the orient sun. Dark Lebanon 270 Waved all his pines for thee; for thee the oaks Of Bashan towered in strength: thy galleys cut, Glittering, the sunny surge; thy mariners, On ivory benches, furled th' embroidered sails, That looms of Egypt wove, or to the oars, That measuring dipped, their choral sea-songs sung; The mult.i.tude of isles did shout for thee, And cast their emeralds at thy feet, and said-- Queen of the Waters, who is like to thee!

So wert thou glorious on the seas, and said'st, 280 _I am a G.o.d_, and there is none like me.

But the dread voice prophetic is gone forth:-- Howl, for the whirlwind of the desert comes!

Howl ye again, for Tyre, her mult.i.tude Of sins and dark abominations cry Against her, saith the LORD; in the mid seas Her beauty shall be broken; I will bring Her pride to ashes; she shall be no more, The distant isles shall tremble at the sound When thou dost fall; the princes of the sea 290 Shall from their thrones come down, and cast away Their gorgeous robes; for thee they shall take up A bitter lamentation, and shall say-- How art thou fallen, renowned city! THOU, Who wert enthroned glorious on the seas, To rise no more!

So visible, O G.o.d, Is thy dread hand in all the earth! Where Tyre In gold and purple glittered o'er the scene, Now the poor fisher dries his net, nor thinks 300 How great, how rich, how glorious, once she rose!

Meantime the furthest isle, cold and obscure, Whose painted natives roamed their woody wilds, From all the world cut off, that wondering marked Her stately sails approach, now in her turn Rises a star of glory in the West-- Albion, the wonder of the illumined world!

See there a Newton wing the highest heavens; See there a Hersch.e.l.l's daring hand withdraw The luminous pavilion, and the throne 310 Of the bright SUN reveal; there hear the voice Of holy truth amid her cloistered fane, As the clear anthem swells; see Taste adorn Her palaces; and Painting's fervid touch, That bids the canvas breathe; hear angel-strains, When Handel, or melodious Purcell, pours His sweetest harmonies; see Poesy Open her vales romantic, and the scenes Where Fancy, an enraptured votary, roves At eve; and hark! 'twas Shakspeare's voice! he sits 320 Upon a high and charmed rock alone, And, like the genius of the mountain, gives The rapt song to the winds; whilst Pity weeps, Or Terror shudders at the changeful tones, As when his Ariel soothes the storm! Then pause, For the wild billows answer--Lycidas Is dead, young Lycidas, dead ere his prime, Whelmed in the deep, beyond the Orcades, Or where the "vision of the guarded Mount, BELERUS holds." 330 Nor skies, nor earth, confine The march of England's glory; on she speeds-- The unknown barriers of the utmost deep Her prow has burst, where the dread genius slept For ages undisturbed, save when he walked Amid the darkness of the storm! Her fleet Even now along the East rides terrible, Where early-rising commerce cheered the scene!

Heard ye the thunders of her vengeance roll, As Nelson, through the battle's dark-red haze 340 Aloft upon the burning prow directs, Where the dread hurricane, with sulphureous flash, Shall burst unquenchable, while from the grave Osiris ampler seems to rise? Where thou, O Tyre! didst awe the subject seas of yore, Acre even now, and ancient Carmel, hears The cry of conquest. 'Mid the fire and smoke Of the war-shaken citadel, with eye Of temper'd flame, yet resolute command, His brave sword beaming, and his cheering voice 350 Heard 'mid the onset's cries, his dark-brown hair Spread on his fearless forehead, and his hand Pointing to Gallia's baffled chief, behold The British Hero stand! Why beats my heart With kindred animation? The warm tear Of patriot triumph fills mine eye. I strike A louder strain unconscious, while the harp Swells to the bold involuntary song.

I.

Fly, SON OF TERROR, fly!

Back o'er the burning desert he is fled! 360 In heaps the gory dead And livid in the trenches lie!

His dazzling files no more Flash on the Syrian sands, As when from Egypt's ravaged sh.o.r.e, Aloft their gleamy falchions swinging, Aloud their victor paeans singing, Their onward way the Gallic legions took.

Despair, dismay, are on his altered look, Yet hate indignant lowers; 370 Whilst high on Acre's granite towers The shade of English Richard seems to stand; And frowning far, in dusky rows, A thousand archers draw their bows!

They join the triumph of the British band, And the rent watch-tower echoes to the cry, Heard o'er the rolling surge--They fly, they fly!

II.

Now the hostile fires decline, Now through the smoke's deep volumes s.h.i.+ne; Now above the bastions gray 380 The clouds of battle roll away; Where, with calm, yet glowing mien, Britain's victorious youth is seen!

He lifts his eye, His country's ensigns wave through smoke on high, Whilst the long-mingled shout is heard--They fly, they fly!

III.

h.o.a.ry CARMEL, witness thou, And lift in conscious pride thy brow; As when upon thy cloudy plain BAAL'S PROPHETS cried in vain! 390 They gashed their flesh, and leaped, and cried, From morn till lingering even-tide.

Then stern ELIJAH on his foes Strong in the might of Heaven arose!-- On CARMEL'S top he stood, And while the blackening clouds and rain Came sounding from the Western main, Raised his right hand that dropped with impious blood.

ANCIENT KISHON prouder swell, On whose banks they bowed, they fell, 400 The mighty ones of yore, when, pale with dread, Inglorious SISERA fled!

So let them perish, Holy LORD, Who for OPPRESSION lift the sword; But let all those who, armed for freedom, fight, 405 "Be as the sun who goes forth in his might."

[160] Alluding to the harps found in the caverns of Thebes.

[161] Migdol was a fortress which guarded the pa.s.s of Egypt; Baal-zephon, a sea idol, generally considered the guardian of the coast.

[162] The Cus.h.i.+tes inhabited the granite rocks stretching along the Red Sea.