 | [Poems by Whittier in] A Study of Whittier's Apprenticeship as a Poet |  |
126
HAROUN
By the ruins of Palmyra (From “Haroun,” an unfinished poem)
Time-mouldered ruins! still ye wear
A semblance of your ancient pride!
E'en now your moss-grown columns bear
A grandeur which the wasting tide
Of thronging years could not efface;
Although in their o'erwhelming wave,
Has sunk each record that might trace
The name and power of those who gave
Such splendor to the desert plain,
When, bursting through the twilight's dun,
Tall tower and marble-columned fane,
Was lighted by Arabia's sun.
A semblance of your ancient pride!
E'en now your moss-grown columns bear
A grandeur which the wasting tide
Of thronging years could not efface;
Although in their o'erwhelming wave,
Has sunk each record that might trace
The name and power of those who gave
Such splendor to the desert plain,
When, bursting through the twilight's dun,
Tall tower and marble-columned fane,
Was lighted by Arabia's sun.
Pillar and column! ivy wrapt,
Scathed by the desert's blasting storms,
Full many a son of pride has slept
For ages neath your wasted forms.
They sleep forgotten—you alone,
Despite of time, remain to tell
That here ambition's toils were known—
That here a city rose and fell.
Scathed by the desert's blasting storms,
Full many a son of pride has slept
For ages neath your wasted forms.
They sleep forgotten—you alone,
Despite of time, remain to tell
That here ambition's toils were known—
That here a city rose and fell.
They are no more—stern Time has thrown
The shroud of years their memories o'er,
Their glorious deeds no longer known,
Awake the voice of praise no more.
The shroud of years their memories o'er,
Their glorious deeds no longer known,
Awake the voice of praise no more.
Glory and fame! oh what are they,
But meteor gleams whose flowing light,
Illumine a moment life's dark way,
And leave it wrapt in deeper night.
But meteor gleams whose flowing light,
Illumine a moment life's dark way,
And leave it wrapt in deeper night.
Haverhill Gazette, March 24, 1827
| [Poems by Whittier in] A Study of Whittier's Apprenticeship as a Poet | |