Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Syria: Esdraelon, Plain of | | Plain of Esdraelon | | Nicholas Michell (1807–1880) |
| | (From Ruins of Many Lands)
ESDRAELON’S plain still boasts its myrtle bowers, | |
| Golden with corn, or carpeted with flowers: | |
| How like a sainted mind that seeks the skies, | |
| Crowned with a glory, Tabor’s tops arise! | |
| From base to summit groves are waving green, | 5 |
| While many a hoary ruin peeps between. | |
| Here mouldered church and fallen convent show | |
| How warm was zeal a thousand years ago; | |
| In yon stone cell the hermit knelt to pray, | |
| And passed in dreams his martyr life away. | 10 |
| Jasmine’s white bells and henna’s yellow bloom | |
| Breathe out their sweets till rocks e’en drink perfume; | |
| In viewless clouds those odors mount the air, | |
| And Tabor stands like some rich altar there. | | | | |
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