HEROD'S LAMENT FOR MARIAMNE. I. On, Mariamne! now for thee The heart for which thou bled'st is bleeding; Revenge is lost in agony, And wild remorse to rage succeeding. Oh, Mariamne! where art thou? Thou canst not hear my bitter' pleading: Ah, could'st thou -thou would'st pardon now, Though heaven were to my prayer unheeding. Obey my phrensy's jealous raving? My wrath but doomed my own despair: The sword that smote her's o'er me waving. But thou art cold, my murdered love! And leaves my soul unworthy saving. - III. She's gone, who shared my diadem; Whose leaves for me alone were blooming. And mine's the guilt, and mine the hell, This bosom's desolation dooming; And I have earned those tortures well, Which unconsumed are still consuming! ON THE DAY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS. I. From the last hill that looks on thy once holy dome I beheld thee, Oh SION! when rendered to Rome: Twas thy last sun went down, and the flames of thy fall Flashed back on the last glance I gave to thy wall. II. I looked for thy temple, I looked for my home, III. On many an eve, the high spot whence I gazed Had reflected the last beam of day as it placed; While I stood on the height, and beheld the decline Of the rays from the mountain that shone on thy shrine. IV. And now on that mountain I stood on that day, But I marked not the twilight beam melting away; Oh! would that the lightning had glared in its stead, And the thunderbolt burst on the conqueror's head! V. But the Gods of the Pagan shall never profane The shrine where Jehovah disdained not to reign; And scattered and scorned as thy people may be, Our worship, oh Father! is only for thee. BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON WE SAT DOWN AND WEPT. I. WE sate down and wept by the waters II. While sadly we gazed on the river That triumph the stranger shall know! Ere it string our high harp for the foe! |