"BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON." I. IN the valley of waters we wept on the day II. The song they demanded in vain-it lay still In our souls as the wind that hath died on the hillThey called for the harp-but our blood they shall spill Ere our right hands shall teach them one tone of their skill. III. All stringlessly hung in the willow's sad tree, As dead as her dead-leaf, those mute harps must be: 1815. THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB. I. THE Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. II. Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,1 That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. III. For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, IV. And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf," And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. V. And there lay the rider distorted and pale, ii. With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail : iii. And the tents were all silent—the banners alone— The lances unlifted-the trumpet unblown. VI. And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,iv. Seahain, Feb. 17, 1815. i. And the foam of his bridle lay cold on the earth.—[MS.] of the cliff-beating surf.—[MS.] ii. iii. With the crow on his breast --[MS.] iv. And the widows of Babel· -.-[MS. erased.] v. And the voices of Israel are joyous and high.—[MS. erased.] 1. [Compare "As leaves in autumn, so the bodies fell." The Barons' Wars, by Michael Drayton, Bk. II. stanza lvii. ; Anderson's British Poets, iii. 38.] A SPIRIT PASSED BEFORE ME. FROM JOB. I. A SPIRIT passed before me: I beheld Deep Sleep came down on every eye save mine- II. "Is man more just than God? Is man more pure |