| |
| THE DAY 1 rose clear on Gibeon. Her high towers | |
| Flash’d the red sunbeams gloriously back, | |
| And the wind-driven banners, and the steel | |
| Of her ten thousand spears caught dazzlingly | |
| The sun, and on the fortresses of rock | 5 |
| Play’d a soft glow, that as a mockery seem’d | |
| To the stern men who girded by its light. | |
| Beth-Horon in the distance slept, and breath | |
| Was pleasant in the vale of Ajalon, | |
| Where armed heels trod carelessly the sweet | 10 |
| Wild spices, and the trees of gum were shook | |
| By the rude armor on their branches hung. | |
| Suddenly in the camp without the walls | |
| Rose a deep murmur, and the men of war | |
| Gather’d around their kings, and “Joshua! | 15 |
| From Gilgal, Joshua!” was whisper’d low, | |
| As with a secret fear, and then, at once, | |
| With the abruptness of a dream, he stood | |
| Upon the rock before them. Calmly then | |
| Raised he his helm, and with his temples bare | 20 |
| And hands uplifted to the sky, he pray’d;— | |
| “God of this people, hear! and let the sun | |
| Stand upon Gibeon, still; and let the moon | |
| Rest in the vale of Ajalon!” He ceased— | |
| And lo! the moon sits motionless, and earth | 25 |
| Stands on her axis indolent. The sun | |
| Pours the unmoving column of his rays | |
| In undiminish’d heat; the hours stand still; | |
| The shade hath stopp’d upon the dial’s face; | |
| The clouds and vapors that at night are wont | 30 |
| To gather and enshroud the lower earth, | |
| Are struggling with strange rays, breaking them up, | |
| Scattering the misty phalanx like a wand, | |
| Glancing o’er mountain tops, and shining down | |
| In broken masses on the astonish’d plains. | 35 |
| The fever’d cattle group in wondering herds; | |
| The weary birds go to their leafy nests, | |
| But find no darkness there, and wander forth | |
| On feeble, fluttering wing, to find a rest; | |
| The parch’d, baked earth, undamp’d by usual dews, | 40 |
| Has gaped and crack’d, and heat, dry, mid-day heat, | |
| Comes like a drunkard’s breath upon the heart. | |
| On with thy armies, Joshua! The Lord | |
| God of Sabaoth is the avenger now! | |
| His voice is in the thunder, and his wrath | 45 |
| Poureth the beams of the retarded sun, | |
| With the keen strength of arrows, on their sight. | |
| The unwearied sun rides in the zenith sky; | |
| Nature, obedient to her Maker’s voice, | |
| Stops in full course all her mysterious wheels. | 50 |
| On! till avenging swords have drunk the blood | |
| Of all Jehovah’s enemies, and till | |
| Thy banners in returning triumph wave; | |
| Then yonder orb shall set ’mid golden clouds, | |
| And, while a dewy rain falls soft on earth, | 55 |
| Show in the heavens the glorious bow of God, | |
| Shining, the rainbow banner of the skies. | |
