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* * * * * FROM sunlight unto starlight trumpets told | |
| Her king’s command in Babylon the old, | |
| From sunlight unto starlight west and east | |
| A thousand satraps girt them for the feast, | |
| And reined their chargers to the palace hall | 5 |
| Where King Belshazzar held high festival: | |
| A pleasant palace under pleasant skies, | |
| With cloistered courts and gilded galleries, | |
| And gay kiosk and painted balustrade | |
| For winter terraces and summer shade; | 10 |
| By court and terrace, minaret and dome, | |
| Euphrates, rushing from his mountain home, | |
| Rested his rage, and curbed his crested pride | |
| To belt that palace with his bluest tide; | |
| Broad-fronted bulls with chiselled feathers barred | 15 |
| In silent vigil keeping watch and ward, | |
| Giants of granite wrought by cunning hand | |
| Guard in the gate and frown upon the land: | |
| Not summer’s glow nor yellow autumn’s glare | |
| Pierced the broad tamarisks that blossomed there; | 20 |
| The moonbeam darting through their leafy screen | |
| Lost half its silver in the softened green, | |
| And fell with lessened lustre, broken light, | |
| Tracing quaint arabesque of dark and white; | |
| Or dimly tinting on the graven stones | 25 |
| The pictured annals of Chaldæan thrones. | |
| There, from the rising to the setting day, | |
| Birds of bright feather sang the light away, | |
| And fountain waters on the palace-floor | |
| Made even answer to the river’s roar, | 30 |
| Rising in silver from the crystal well | |
| And breaking into spangles as they fell; | |
| Though now ye heard them not, for far along | |
| Rang the broad chorus of the banquet song, | |
| And sounds as gentle, echoes soft as these, | 35 |
| Died out of hearing from the revelries. | |
| |
| High on a throne of ivory and gold, | |
| From crown to footstool clad in purple fold, | |
| Lord of the east from sea to distant sea, | |
| The king Belshazzar feasteth royally,— | 40 |
| And not that dreamer in the desert cave | |
| Peopled his paradise with pomp as brave: | |
| Vessels of silver, cups of crusted gold | |
| Blush with a brighter red than all they hold; | |
| Pendulous lamps like planets of the night | 45 |
| Flung on the diadems a fragrant light, | |
| Or slowly swinging in the midnight sky | |
| Gilded the ripples as they glided by; | |
| And sweet and sweeter rang the cittern-string | |
| Soft as the beating of a seraph’s wing, | 50 |
| And swift and swifter in the measured dance | |
| The tresses gather and the sandals glance, | |
| And bright and brighter at the festal board | |
| The flagons bubble and the wines are poured. * * * * * | |
| The last loud answer dies along the line, | 55 |
| The last light bubble bursts upon the wine, | |
| His eager lips are on the jewelled brink,— | |
| Hath the cup poison that he doubts to drink? | |
| Is there a spell upon the sparkling gold, | |
| That so his fevered fingers quit their hold? | 60 |
| Whom sees he where he gazes? what is there | |
| Freezing his vision into fearful stare? | |
| Follow his lifted arm and lighted eye, | |
| And watch with them the wondrous mystery. | |
| |
| There cometh forth a hand, upon the stone | 65 |
| Graving the symbols of a speech unknown; | |
| Fingers like mortal fingers, leaving there | |
| The blank wall flashing characters of fear, | |
| And still it glideth silently and slow, | |
| And still beneath the spectral letters grow,— | 70 |
| Now the scroll endeth, now the seal is set, | |
| The hand is gone, the record tarries yet. | |
| |
| As one who waits the warrant of his death, | |
| With pale lips parted and with bridled breath, | |
| They watch the sign and dare not turn to seek | 75 |
| Their fear reflected in their fellows’ cheek, | |
| But stand as statues where the life is none, | |
| Half the jest uttered, half the laughter done, | |
| Half the flask empty, half the flagon poured, | |
| Each where the phantom found him at the board | 80 |
| Struck into silence, as December’s arm | |
| Curbs the quick ripples into crystal calm. * * * * * | |
| That night they slew him on his father’s throne, | |
| The deed unnoticed and the hand unknown; | |
| Crownless and sceptreless Belshazzar lay, | 85 |
| A robe of purple, round a form of clay. | |
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