| |
MANAHEM, rushing out. AWAY from this Palace of sin! | |
| The demons, the terrible powers | |
| Of the air, that haunt its towers | |
| And hide in its water-spouts, | |
| Deafen me with the din | 5 |
| Of their laughter and their shouts | |
| For the crimes that are done within! | |
| |
| Sink back into the earth, | |
| Or vanish into the air, | |
| Thou castle of despair! | 10 |
| Let it all be but a dream | |
| Of the things of monstrous birth, | |
| Of the things that only seem! | |
| White Angel of the Moon, | |
| Onafiel! be my guide | 15 |
| Out of this hateful place | |
| Of sin and death, nor hide | |
| In you black cloud too soon | |
| Thy pale and tranquil face! A trumpet is blown from the walls. | |
| Hark! hark! It is the breath | 20 |
| Of the trump of doom and death, | |
| From the battlements overhead | |
| Like a burden of sorrow cast | |
| On the midnight and the blast, | |
| A wailing for the dead, | 25 |
| That the gusts drop and uplift! | |
| O Herod, thy vengeance is swift! | |
| O Herodias, thou hast been | |
| The demon, the evil thing, | |
| That in place of Esther the Queen, | 30 |
| In place of the lawful bride, | |
| Hast lain at night by the side | |
| Of Ahasuerus the king! The trumpet again. | |
| The Prophet of God is dead! | |
| At a drunken monarch’s call, | 35 |
| At a dancing-woman’s beck, | |
| They have severed that stubborn neck | |
| And into the banquet-hall | |
| Are bearing the ghastly head! A body is thrown from the tower. | |
| A torch of lurid red | 40 |
| Lights the window with its glow; | |
| And a white mass as of snow | |
| Is hurled into the abyss | |
| Of the black precipice, | |
| That yawns for it below! | 45 |
| O hand of the Most High, | |
| O hand of Adonai! | |
| Bury it, hide it away | |
| From the birds and beasts of prey, | |
| And the eyes of the homicide, | 50 |
| More pitiless than they, | |
| As thou didst bury of yore | |
| The body of him that died | |
| On the mountain of Peor! | |
| |
| Even now I behold a sign, | 55 |
| A threatening of wrath divine, | |
| A watery, wandering star, | |
| Through whose streaming hair, and the white | |
| Unfolding garments of light, | |
| That trail behind it afar, | 60 |
| The constellations shine! | |
| And the whiteness and brightness appear | |
| Like the Angel bearing the Seer | |
| By the hair of his head, in the might | |
| And rush of his vehement flight. | 65 |
| And I listen until I hear | |
| From fathomless depths of the sky | |
| The voice of his prophecy | |
| Sounding louder and more near! | |
| |
| Malediction! malediction! | 70 |
| May the lightnings of heaven fall | |
| On palace and prison wall, | |
| And their desolation be | |
| As the day of fear and affliction, | |
| As the day of anguish and ire, | 75 |
| With the burning and fuel of fire, | |
| In the Valley of the Sea! | |
| |
