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| THE ASSYRIAN came down like the wolf on the fold, | |
| And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold: | |
| And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, | |
| When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. | |
| |
| Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, | 5 |
| That host with their banners at sunset were seen: | |
| Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, | |
| That host on the morrow lay wither’d and strown. | |
| |
| For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, | |
| And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass’d; | 10 |
| And the eyes of the sleepers wax’d deadly and chill, | |
| And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still! | |
| |
| And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, | |
| But through it there roll’d not the breath of his pride; | |
| And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, | 15 |
| And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. | |
| |
| And there lay the rider distorted and pale, | |
| With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail: | |
| And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, | |
| The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown. | 20 |
| |
| And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, | |
| And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; | |
| And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, | |
| Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord! | |
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