And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest 25 The pall of a past world; and then again 30 With curses cast them down upon the dust, And gnashed their teeth and howled: the wild birds shrieked, And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes 35 40 All earth was but one thought—and that was death Immediate and inglorious; and the pang Of famine fed upon all entrails-men Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh; 45 The meager by the meager were devoured, Even dogs assailed their masters, all save one, And he was faithful to a corse, and kept The birds and beasts and famished men at bay, 50 And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand Which answered not with a caress-he died. The crowd was famished by degrees; but two 55 And they were enemies: they met beside Where had been heaped a mass of holy things Each other's aspects-saw, and shrieked, and died— Famine had written Fiend. The world was void, 70 And nothing stirred within their silent depths; Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea, 75 And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropped The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave, The Moon, their mistress, had expired before; The winds were withered in the stagnant air, And the clouds perished; Darkness had no need Of aid from them-She was the Universe! DIODATI, July, 1816. 80 THE DESTRUCTION OF SEN NACHERIB.1 I. THE Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, II. Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, III. For the Angel of Death 2 spread his wings on the blast, 5 ΙΟ 1 This musical lyric is a good specimen of Byron's Hebrew Melodies, of which there are twenty, a few of the most noted being those entitled Vision of Belshazzar, She Walks in Beauty, and The Wild Gazelle. Compare the poem with Thomas Moore's Sound the Loud Timbrel, a still finer Hebrew melody. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, reigned from B.C. 705 to 681. 2 "And the Lord sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valor, IV. And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. V. And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail: VI. And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, 15 20 and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. turned with shame of face to his own land" (II. Chronicles xxxii. 21). So he re |