University of Virginia Library

Come near, ye nations! and give ear, O earth!
Ye distant isles, and continents remote,
Where-e'er dispers'd beneath the vast expanse
Of heav'n's high roof, attend! Attend, and hear
Your doom tremendous ratify'd above,
Sad retribution of enormous guilt,
Which calling loud for justice and revenge,
Flew swift as light up to the throne of God,
And pull'd down dire destruction on the earth.
The mighty God, with all his thunder arm'd,
Will cast abroad the terrors of his wrath;
And show'r down vengeance on the guilty land.
The Lord of hosts amidst a night of clouds,
And with the majesty of darkness crown'd,
Thunder'd aloft; and from the inmost heav'n
Hurl'd down impetuous fury swift as thought
Through th'azure void, wide-stretch'd from pole to pole,
To ravage all the boundless universe.
As when a blust'ring wind rolls from the north,
And shakes all autumn with the driving blast;
So shall the fury of th'Omnipotent
Destroy the nations, and confound their arms,
Swords, shields, and spears, and all the pow'rs of war;
With eager speed rush o'er th'embattled ranks,
And thro' the thick battalions urge its way.
Jehovah's arm will shake the vast convex,
And wrap the whole circumference around
In wasting desolation, ruin wide.
Destructive slaughter, ghastly to behold,
Dire specimen of wrath omnipotent,
Shall march tremendous o'er the burden'd earth,
Oppress'd, and conscious of unusual weight,
Shrinking beneath the heavy load of death.
The purple piles, and mountains of the slain,
Expiring wretches, pouring out their souls
With bursts of groans, shall fill the lab'ring world.
Each slaughter'd corps shall breath a pestilence;
And wide around diffuse the scents of death.
Th'eternal hills shall float in seas of blood;
And mountains vanish in the crimson tide.
Nature's huge volume shall be folded up
Like a vast scroll; and all the glittering orbs
Drop from the heavens like autumnal leaves,
Or the ripe fig, when sultry Sirius reigns;
While peals of thunder rattling in the skies,
Shall roll incessant o'er th'astonish'd world.
Death and destruction threat'ning all below,
And in substantial darkness high enthron'd,
Shall draw the curtains of eternal night,
And spread confusion hideous o'er the earth,
As when the embryo world ere time began,
In one rude heap, one undigested mass
Of jarring discord, and disorder lay.
The sun, amaz'd to see the wild obscure,
No more with radiant light shall gild the skies;
No more diffusing his all genial beams
On the high mountains spread the shining morn;
But downwards flaming thro' the vast immense,
Shall hide his glory in eternal night.
Thus in loud thunder speaks th'Almighty Sire—
In copious slaughter will I take my sword,
And, Idumea! thou shalt swim in blood.
The Lord shall hasten from the lofty skies;
Destruction on his aweful footsteps waits;
Death stalks before, ruin on every side
Proclaims the terror of an angry God.
The ravenous sword, pamper'd with reeking gore,
Drunk with the blood of half the rebel world,
Shall there be sheath'd in Israel's stubborn foes.

Bozrah with human sacrifice shall smoke,
And Idumea, thoughtless of her fate,
Shall feel the smart of heav'n's avenging rod.
The great, the small, th'oppressor, and th'oppress'd,
Shall join promiscuous in the common heap;
And one vast ruin shall involve them all.
For Israel's God is girt with burning rage,
And vows a last revenge to Zion's foes.
The silver streams, that shine alone the plain,
And chide their banks, and tinkle as they run,
Shall stop, and stagnate to a sable pool;
And, black with mud, unconscious of a tide,
No more shall charm the sense, or lull the soul,
Or in soft murmurs die upon the ear:
But in crude streams and deadly stench exhale,
And with contagious vapours load the sky.

Rapacious flames, in pyramids of fire,
Shall burn unquenchable; and sulph'rous smoke,
Advancing o'er the horizontal plain,
In dusky wreaths roll ever to the skies.
Th'inhospitable land, left desolate,
Unfruitful, but in ev'ry noxious weed,
Shall be a lonely desart, waste and wild;
Within whose silent confines none shall dwell;
Nor ever more be heard th'harmonious voice
Of warbling birds, that heretofore were wont
In vocal choir to animate the grove,
And from the shady covert of the trees
Dispense sweet music to the list'ning vale:
But hooting owls, that spread their lazy wings
O'er the dark gloom, and with their boding screams
Double the native horrors of the night;
These with the cormorants shall dwell therein,
Securely in the upper lintels lodge,
And in the windows direful dirges sing.

God shall extend, and bare his thund'ring arm;
And with confusion circumscribe the land.
Where are the nobles, and the mighty chiefs,
That in soft ease their silken moments waste;
To whom their prostrate vassals throng in crowds,
Striving who first shall aweful homage pay,
And adoration! Them shall they invoke;
But all in vain; their names shall be no more,
But in their stead more worthy savages,
With rapine uncontrouble shall reign;
And nobler brutes shall canton out the land.
Those regal domes, and tow'ring palaces,
That high in clouds exalt their impious heads,
Reflecting thro' the liquid firmament
Home to the distant ken a dazling blaze,
Thorns shall surround, and nettles grow within:
Ivy shall creep along the painted walls:
The matted grass o'erspread the polish'd floor;
And brambles vile entwine the empty throne.
While beasts from different climes, joyous to find
A place of rest to man alone denied,
Shall take possession of the gilded domes:
The shaggy satyrs, that old forests haunt,
The ostrich and his mate, and dragons huge
Shall sport, and revel in the dreary waste.
There the hoarse screech-owls, that in dead of night
Upon the chimney tops perch ominous,
While songs obscene the silent hours disturb,
Shall in loud shrieks their sad presages tell,
Shall unmolested solitude enjoy,
And desolation make more desolate.
Ravens, and vulturs, scenting from afar
The universal slaughter, shall come forth
From the high mountain, and the humble vale,
Croaking in hideous concert, as they fly,
Dark'ning the heavens with their ghastly train;
And glut their hungry jaws with human prey,
Not one of these shall fail; none want her mate;
But shall for ever, such the Lord's decree,
In Edom's ruins wanton undisturb'd.
This is the fate, ordain'd for Zion's foes.