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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  Bound upon the Accurséd Tree

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.

Syria: Calvary, the Mount

Bound upon the Accurséd Tree

By Henry Hart Milman (1791–1868)

BOUND upon the accurséd tree,

Faint and bleeding, who is he?

By the eyes so pale and dim,

Streaming blood, and writhing limb;

By the flesh, with scourges torn;

By the crown of twisted thorn;

By the side so deeply pierced;

By the baffled, burning thirst;

By the drooping death-dewed brow:

Son of Man, ’t is thou! ’t is thou!

Bound upon the accurséd tree,

Dread and awful, who is he?

By the sun at noonday pale,

Shivering rocks, and rending veil:

By earth, that trembles at his doom;

By yonder saints who burst their tomb;

By Eden promised, ere he died,

To the felon at his side;

Lord, our suppliant knees we bow:

Son of God, ’t is thou! ’t is thou!

Bound upon the accurséd tree,

Sad and dying, who is he?

By the last and bitter cry;

The ghost given up in agony;

By the lifeless body laid

In the chamber of the dead;

By the mourners come to weep

Where the bones of Jesus sleep;

Crucified! we know thee now:

Son of Man, ’t is thou! ’t is thou!

Bound upon the accurséd tree,

Dread and awful, who is he?

By the prayer for them that slew,—

“Lord, they know not what they do!”

By the spoiled and empty grave;

By the souls he died to save;

By the conquest he hath won;

By the saints before his throne:

By the rainbow round his brow;

Son of God, ’t is thou! ’t is thou!