Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Mesopotamia: Euphrates, the River | | The Euphrates | | Henry Hart Milman (1791–1868) |
| | (From Belshazzar)
THE HOUR is come! the hour is come! With voice | |
| Heard in thy inmost soul, I summon thee, | |
| Cyrus, the Lord’s anointed! And thou river, | |
| That flow’st exulting in thy proud approach | |
| To Babylon, beneath whose shadowy walls | 5 |
| And brazen gates, and gilded palaces, | |
| And groves that gleam with marble obelisks, | |
| Thy azure bosom shall repose, with lights | |
| Fretted and checkered like the starry heavens: | |
| I do arrest thee in thy stately course, | 10 |
| By Him that poured thee from thine ancient fountain, | |
| And sent thee forth, even at the birth of time, | |
| One of his holy streams, to lave the mounts | |
| Of Paradise. Thou hear’st me: thou dost check | |
| Abrupt thy waters, as the Arab chief | 15 |
| His headlong squadrons. Where the unobserved | |
| Yet toiling Persian breaks the ruining mound, | |
| I see thee gather thy tumultuous strength: | |
| And, through the deep and roaring Naharmalcha, | |
| Roll on, as proudly conscious of fulfilling | 20 |
| The Omnipotent command! While, far away, | |
| The lake, that slept but now so calm, nor moved | |
| Save by the rippling moonshine, heaves on high | |
| Its foaming surface, like a whirlpool gulf, | |
| And boils and whitens with the unwonted tide. | 25 | | | |
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