Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Syria: Tyre (Soor) | | Tyre | | John Dyer (1700?–1758) |
| | (From The Fleece)
THE DUST of Carthage; desert shores of Nile; | |
| Or Tyre’s abandoned summit, crowned of old | |
| With stately towers; whose merchants, from their isles, | |
| And radiant thrones, assembled in her marts; | |
| Whither Arabia, whither Kedar, brought | 5 |
| Their shaggy goats, their flocks and bleating lambs; | |
| Where rich Damascus piled his fleeces white, | |
| Prepared, and thirsty for the double tint, | |
| And flowering shuttle. While the admiring world | |
| Crowded her streets; ah! then the hand of pride | 10 |
| Sowed imperceptible his poisonous weed, | |
| Which crept destructive up her lofty domes, | |
| As ivy creeps around the graceful trunk | |
| Of some tall oak. Her lofty domes no more, | |
| Not even the ruins of her pomp, remain; | 15 |
| Not even the dust they sank in; by the breath | |
| Of the Omnipotent offended hurled | |
| Down to the bottom of the stormy deep: | |
| Only the solitary rock remains, | |
| Her ancient site; a monument to those, | 20 |
| Who toil and wealth exchange for sloth and pride. | | | | |
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