| |
| THE MIDDAY sun, with fiercest glare, | |
| Broods o’er the hazy, twinkling air; | |
| Along the level sand | |
| The palm-tree’s shade unwavering lies, | |
| Just as thy towers, Damascus, rise | 5 |
| To greet yon wearied band. | |
| |
| The leader of that martial crew | |
| Seems bent some mighty deed to do, | |
| So steadily he speeds, | |
| With lips firm closed and fixed eye, | 10 |
| Like warrior when the fight is nigh, | |
| Nor talk nor landscape heeds. | |
| |
| What sudden blaze is round him poured, | |
| As though all Heaven’s refulgent hoard | |
| In one rich glory shone? | 15 |
| One moment,—and to earth he falls: | |
| What voice his inmost heart appalls?— | |
| Voice heard by him alone. | |
| |
| For to the rest both words and form | |
| Seem lost in lightning and in storm, | 20 |
| While Saul, in wakeful trance, | |
| Sees deep within that dazzling field | |
| His persecuted Lord revealed | |
| With keen yet pitying glance; | |
| |
| And hears the meek upbraiding call | 25 |
| As gently on his spirit fall, | |
| As if the Almighty Son | |
| Were prisoner yet in this dark earth, | |
| Nor had proclaimed his royal birth, | |
| Nor his great power begun. | 30 |
| |
| “Ah! wherefore persecut’st thou me?” | |
| He heard and saw, and sought to free | |
| His strained eye from the sight: | |
| But Heaven’s high magic bound it there, | |
| Still gazing, though untaught to bear | 35 |
| The insufferable light. * * * * * | |
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