| |
| “GET ye up from the wrath of God’s terrible day! | |
| Ungirded, unsandalled, arise and away! | |
| ’T is the vintage of blood, ’t is the fulness of time, | |
| And vengeance shall gather the harvest of crime!” | |
| |
| The warning was spoken; the righteous had gone, | 5 |
| And the proud ones of Sodom were feasting alone; | |
| All gay was the banquet; the revel was long, | |
| With the pouring of wine and the breathing of song. | |
| |
| ’T was an evening of beauty; the air was perfume, | |
| The earth was all greenness, the trees were all bloom; | 10 |
| And softly the delicate viol was heard, | |
| Like the murmur of love or the notes of a bird. | |
| |
| And beautiful maidens moved down in the dance, | |
| With the magic of motion and sunshine of glance; | |
| And white arms wreathed lightly, and tresses fell free | 15 |
| As the plumage of birds in some tropical tree. | |
| |
| Where the shrines of foul idols were lighted on high, | |
| And wantonness tempted the lust of the eye; | |
| Midst rites of obsceneness, strange, loathsome, abhorred, | |
| The blasphemer scoffed at the name of the Lord. | 20 |
| |
| Hark! the growl of the thunder,—the quaking of earth! | |
| Woe, woe to the worship, and woe to the mirth! | |
| The black sky has opened,—there ’s flame in the air,— | |
| The red arm of Vengeance is lifted and bare! | |
| |
| Then the shriek of the dying rose wild where the song | 25 |
| And the low tone of love had been whispered along; | |
| For the fierce flames went lightly o’er palace and bower, | |
| Like the red tongues of demons, to blast and devour! | |
| |
| Down,—down on the fallen the red ruin rained, | |
| And the reveller sank with his wine-cup undrained: | 30 |
| The foot of the dancer, the music’s loved thrill, | |
| And the shout and the laughter grew suddenly still. | |
| |
| The last throb of anguish was fearfully given; | |
| The last eye glared forth in its madness on Heaven! | |
| The last groan of horror rose wildly and vain, | 35 |
| And death brooded over the pride of the plain! | |
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