Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Syria: Capernaum | | Capernaum | | Nicholas Michell (1807–1880) |
| | (From Ruins of Many Lands)
BUT near where Jordan, rippling, joins the lake, | |
| And towering hills a wilder aspect take, | |
| Dark groups of ruin draw the traveller’s eye, | |
| And while they prompt reflection ask a sigh. | |
| Frieze, cornice, pillar, lie in mouldering heaps, | 5 |
| Where in the sun the listless adder sleeps. | |
| With ivies hung by Ruin’s mocking hand, | |
| A huge black pile o’erlooks the wave-kissed sand; | |
| Here frowns a building, pierced with arches gray, | |
| Temple or royal palace, who may say? | 10 |
| Within those courts their tents wild Arabs spread, | |
| Or some fell robber hides his dastard head: | |
| Bright pleasure’s town, where sorrow shed no tear, | |
| ’T is proud Capernaum, all thou see’st here! | | | | |
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