 | Eclogues and monodramas |  |
Who gave thy father majesty beyond
The nations in his glory? Whose right arm
Clothed him with terrible fear, and set the necks
Of alien kings beneath his wrathful feet?
Who gave thy sire his conquest and his throne?
Who built secure dominion round his rest,
And made him King indeed: a King to slay
Or keep alive the nations as he chose,
To cancel or establish with his nod?
The most high God, the King of kings, gave all,
And prospered in thy father's hand a time
His delegated sceptre that he throve:
Until his heart was lifted in his pride,
And God eternal heard his impious joy.
For thus the King had spoken as he walked
For pleasure on his palace-roof, to view
His large metropolis beneath his feet—
‘Is not this city Babylon the great,
Which I have builded for my realm's abode,
The house of all my kingdom, founded sure
As an eternal empire in the might
Of my great glory; this majestic work
For my continual honour till the end?’
But while the word was in his throat there fell
A voice from heaven upon him in his pride,
‘Thy kingdom is departed:’ and they drave
The madman from his palace: and he dwelt
With beasts and grazed their herbage, as the dews
Of heaven were wet upon him: till he knew
That the high God, to whom man's kings are dust,
Rules in the kingdom of the sons of men,
And delegates His power to whom He will.
The nations in his glory? Whose right arm
Clothed him with terrible fear, and set the necks
Of alien kings beneath his wrathful feet?
Who gave thy sire his conquest and his throne?
Who built secure dominion round his rest,
And made him King indeed: a King to slay
Or keep alive the nations as he chose,
To cancel or establish with his nod?
The most high God, the King of kings, gave all,
And prospered in thy father's hand a time
His delegated sceptre that he throve:
Until his heart was lifted in his pride,
And God eternal heard his impious joy.
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For pleasure on his palace-roof, to view
His large metropolis beneath his feet—
‘Is not this city Babylon the great,
Which I have builded for my realm's abode,
The house of all my kingdom, founded sure
As an eternal empire in the might
Of my great glory; this majestic work
For my continual honour till the end?’
But while the word was in his throat there fell
A voice from heaven upon him in his pride,
‘Thy kingdom is departed:’ and they drave
The madman from his palace: and he dwelt
With beasts and grazed their herbage, as the dews
Of heaven were wet upon him: till he knew
That the high God, to whom man's kings are dust,
Rules in the kingdom of the sons of men,
And delegates His power to whom He will.
| Eclogues and monodramas | |