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From “The Fall of Jerusalem”
TO the sound of timbrels sweet | |
| Moving slow our solemn feet, | |
| We have borne thee on the road | |
| To the virgin’s blest abode; | |
| With thy yellow torches gleaming, | 5 |
| And thy scarlet mantle streaming, | |
| And the canopy above | |
| Swaying as we slowly move. | |
| Thou hast left the joyous feast, | |
| And the mirth and wine has ceased; | 10 |
| And now we set thee down before | |
| The jealously unclosing door, | |
| That the favored youth admits | |
| Where the veilèd virgin sits | |
| In the bliss of maiden fear, | 15 |
| Waiting our soft tread to hear, | |
| And the music’s brisker din | |
| At the bridegroom’s entering in, | |
| Entering in, a welcome guest, | |
| To the chamber of his rest. | 20 |
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CHORUS OF MAIDENS Now the jocund song is thine, | |
| Bride of David’s kingly line; | |
| How thy dove-like bosom trembleth, | |
| And thy shrouded eye resembleth | |
| Violets, when the dews of eve | 25 |
| A moist and tremulous glitter leave | |
| On the bashful sealèd lid! | |
| Close within the bride-veil hid, | |
| Motionless thou sitt’st and mute; | |
| Save that at the soft salute | 30 |
| Of each entering maiden friend, | |
| Thou dost rise and softly bend. | |
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| Hark! a brisker, merrier glee! | |
| The door unfolds,—’t is he! ’t is he! | |
| Thus we lift our lamps to meet him, | 35 |
| Thus we touch our lutes to greet him. | |
| Thou shalt give a fonder meeting, | |
| Thou shalt give a tenderer greeting. | |
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