 | The poetical works of John Trumbull . |  |
THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON:
AN IMITATION
Of sundry passages in the 13th and 14th chapters of Isaiah, and the 18th of the Revelations of St. John.
From realms of darkness when the Saviour rose.
In Patmos' isle, with light divine inspired,
The loved Apostle from the world retired;
Before his eyes eternal wonders roll,
Celestial visions open on his soul,
Unfolding skies the scenes of fate display,
And heaven descending in the beams of day.
Famed through the earth and favor'd from the skies.
A starry crown invests her radiant head,
Around her form the solar glories spread;
By angels guarded and by heaven beloved;
Till mystic Babel, with blaspheming pride,
For idol forms th' Almighty arm defied.
Then martyr'd blood the holy offering seal'd,
And persecution dyed the carnaged field,
Religion sunk in superstitious lore,
And hallowed temples swam with sainted gore.
Stern justice slumber'd, and avenging ire.
The seer beheld till God's chastising hand
Smote the proud foe and crush'd the guilty land:
Then pious rapture triumph'd on his tongue,
And inspiration breathed th' exulting song.
Son of the morn! bright Phosphor of the day!
How sunk, lost victim of th' unpitying grave,
Thy pride so vaunting and thine arm so brave!
Where now thy haughty boast? “Above the skies,
O'er the starr'd arch, my deathless fame shall rise,
My throne be 'stablish'd and my power extend,
O'er the wide world to stretch my arm abroad,
A God in splendor and in might a God.”
The glory wan, the golden city waste;
Eternal wrath, awaken'd o'er thy land,
Rends the weak sceptre from th' imperious hand;
Heav'n gives its captive sons a kind release,
And earth smiles joyous at the songs of peace.
Death hails thy entrance in the world of woe!
Rise the dark spectres of the mighty dead;
Friends to thy sway and partners in thy crimes,
Kings once on earth and tyrants in their times!
“And art thou fall'n, (their looks of wonder crave)
Swept undistinguish'd to the vaulted grave?
O'er thy pale cheek funereal damps are spread,
And shrouds of sable wrap thee with the dead;
What awed the world oblivion's shadows hide,
And glad worms revel on the wrecks of pride.
Shook the wide earth, and dared th' avenging sky?
Is this the power, that rose in boasted state,
Proud judge of thrones and arbiter of fate;
And spread sad ruin o'er the vanquish'd world?
Exposed in death, and outcast from the grave!
No splendid urn thine honor'd dust contains,
No friendly turf conceals thy sad remains;
For thee no marble lifts its tablet high,
Where kings deceased in mournful glory lie;
Stern fate avenging spurns thee from the blest,
Nor decks the sods, where thy lone relics rest.”
Sweeps her broad besom o'er thy guilty land;
Careering flames attend her wasting way,
And rising darkness intercepts the day;
The dim sun sinks in fearful glooms of night,
The moon encrimson'd veils her trembling light:
While through the o'erarching canopy of shade,
An angel-form, in robes of blood array'd,
Wing'd with th' ethereal vengeance of the skies,
And calls the cloudy winds, that all around
Roll on the storm and rend the deluged ground,
And, deep in vaults where central earthquakes sleep,
Bursts the dark chambers of th' affrighted deep.
Lo, heaven avenging pours the fiery tide,
Thy whelm'd walls sink, thy tottering turrets slide;
Thy glitt'ring domes sulphureous torrents lave,
And doom thy seat, a desert and a grave.
Croud the rich mart or throng the spacious street;
No more the bridegroom's cheerful voice shall call
The viol, sprightly in the sounding hall;
No more the lamp shall yield her friendly light,
Gild thy lone roofs and sparkle through the night;
With falling domes and shatter'd spires around,
And clad in weeds, in wild confusion thrown,
The marble trophy and the sculptured stone.
No future age thy glories shall recall,
Thy turrets lift, or build the ruin'd wall.
Where the gilt palace pierced th' admiring skies,
The owl shall stun thee with funereal cries;
The baleful dragon through thy gardens rove,
And wolves usurp the consecrated grove.
No shepherd there the wand'ring flock shall spread,
Nor seek repose beneath the tented shed;
No stranger there with devious footstep stray,
Where Horror drear defends the fated way,
Eternal Ruin rears her standard wide,
And Vengeance triumphs o'er the realm of pride.
Revelations xii. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.
Isaiah xiv. 12, 13, &c. How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!—
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God—I will be like the Most High.
Isaiah xiv. 4, 5. How is the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
Verse 6. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming, &c.
Isaiah xiv. 9.Had the author seen Lowth's observations in his lectures on the poetry of the Hebrews, he would probably have written this passage differently; but he had then no other guide than the English version, in which the sepulchral cavern in the original, being translated by the word, hell, confuses the whole description, and renders the subsequent mention of thrones, worms, &c. wholly incongruous. As he knew not how to correct the impropriety, he could only endeavour to avoid it.
The worm is spread under thee and the worms cover thee.
Isaiah, xiv. 11.Nothing is more difficult than to express the bold images of oriental poetry in the style of modern verse. With the exception of Pope's Messiah, few attempts have been successful. See in what manner an eminent British poet has imitated this passage—
“For lo! Corruption fastens on thy breast,“And calls her crawling brood, and bids them share the feast.”
Mason, Ode on the fall of Babylon.
Isaiah, xiv. 16, to 20. Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, &c.?
All the kings of the nations lie in glory, every one in his own house [sepulchre.] But thou art cast out of the grave, like an abominable branch. Thou shall not be joined with them in burial, &c.
Isaiah xiii. 6, 10, and xiv. 23. I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts.
The day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
Isaiah xiii. 19–22, and xiv. 11.—Revelations xviii. 21–23. Thy pomp is brought down to the grave and the noise of thy viols.—Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited.—The light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom shall be heard no more in thee.—Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there: But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and owls shall dwell there and satyrs shall dance there.—And the wild beast of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces.
| The poetical works of John Trumbull . | |