Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Syria: Hebron | | Hebron | | Nicholas Michell (1807–1880) |
| | (From Ruins of Many Lands)
THERE stands a tree at Hebron,—huge its form, | |
| Oft seared by lightning, worn by many a storm: | |
| Ages that level thrones beneath their stroke, | |
| And sweep off races, spare that spreading oak. | |
| Pilgrims, when Rome was Pagan, came to see, | 5 |
| And muse beneath this famed and hallowed tree. | |
| Here oft did Abraham sit, when evening still | |
| Cooled the green vale, and crimsoned Hebron’s hill; | |
| The musky breezes round his forehead played, | |
| He blessed bright Nature’s God, and blessed that shade. | 10 |
| Here stood those guests sent earthward from the skies, | |
| Mortal their forms, but heaven within their eyes; | |
| And yonder glooms Machpelah’s ancient cave, | |
| The bartering sons of Heth to Abraham gave. | |
| Now giant stones protect that spot so blest, | 15 |
| Where the great sire and Hebrew mother rest; | |
| Nor yet perchance the rock betrays its trust, | |
| Though forty ages brood above their dust. | |
| But sealed to Christians is that cell of gloom, | |
| The Turk’s proud crescent glittering o’er the tomb; | 20 |
| For Moslems guard the spot with jealous care, | |
| And burn their lamps, and read their Koran there, | |
| And pray to Allah in that worshipped place, | |
| E’en while they scorn and hate the Patriarch’s race. | | | | |
|
|
