Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Syria: Jerusalem | | Jerusalem | | James Abraham Hillhouse (1789–1841) |
| | (From Hadad, Act II, Scene II)
’T IS so; the hoary harper sings aright; | |
| How beautiful is Zion! Like a queen, | |
| Armed with a helm, in virgin loveliness, | |
| Her heaving bosom in a bossy cuirass, | |
| She sits aloft, begirt with battlements | 5 |
| And bulwarks swelling from the rock, to guard | |
| The sacred courts, pavilions, palaces, | |
| Soft gleaming through the umbrage of the woods | |
| Which tuft her summit, and, like raven tresses, | |
| Waved their dark beauty round the tower of David. | 10 |
| Resplendent with a thousand golden bucklers, | |
| The embrasures of alabaster shine; | |
| Hailed by the pilgrims of the desert, bound | |
| To Judah’s mart with orient merchandise. | |
| But not for thou art fair and turret-crowned, | 15 |
| Wet with the choicest dew of heaven, and blessed | |
| With golden fruits and gales of frankincense, | |
| Dwell I beneath thine ample curtains. Here, | |
| Where saints and prophets teach, where the stern law | |
| Still speaks in thunder, where chief angels watch, | 20 |
| And where the glory hovers, here I war. | | | | |
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