Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
Fallen Is Thy Throne
By Thomas Moore (1779–1852)F
Silence is o’er thy plains;
Thy dwellings all lie desolate,
Thy children weep in chains.
Where are the dews that fed thee
On Etham’s barren shore?
That fire from heaven which led thee
Now lights thy path no more.
Once she was all thy own;
Her love thy fairest heritage,
Her power thy glory’s throne:
Till evil came, and blighted
Thy long-loved olive-tree;
And Salem’s shrines were lighted
For other gods than thee!
Then passed her glory’s day,
Like heath that, in the wilderness,
The wild wind whirls away.
Silent and waste her bowers,
Where once the mighty trod,
And sunk those guilty towers,
While Baal reigned as god!
Steep in her blood your swords,
And raze to earth her battlements,
For they are not the Lord’s!
Till Zion’s mournful daughter
O’er kindred bones shall tread,
And Hinnom’s vale of slaughter
Shall hide but half her dead!”