Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PRIDE OF NIMROD, by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PRIDE OF NIMROD, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Thou art king of all the nations
Last Line: And he sunk to endless woe!
Alternate Author Name(s): Houghton, 1st Baron; Houghton, Lord
Subject(s): Nimrod (bible)


"THOU art King of all the nations, --
They are thine to take or give, --
We are but thy will's creations, --
In thy breath we die or live."
So the servile courtiers chanted,
But the tyrant's heart replied
That some stronger food was wanted
To content his swollen pride.

Now, behold, the myriads gather
Round him, -- work as he may bid,
To invade God's realm of aether
By the Babel pyramid:
God the pitiful intrusion
Checks not by his lightning hand,
But imposing and confusion
Frustrates every proud command.

Allah then in arms defying,
See the tyrant's golden car,
With four harnessed eagles, flying
Upward, through the air afar:
Now he glows in rage delighted,
Thinks he grasps Jehovah's throne,
But that instant falls benighted
On a desert rock alone.

Hear, Believers! hear with wonder
How, at last, God's vengeance came;
Not in tempest, not in thunder,
Not in pestilence or flame:
One of Nature's meanest features,
Hardly to your vision clear,
Least of tiny insect creatures,
Crept into the Tyrant's ear.

There its subtle life it nested
In the tissues of his brain,
And the anguish never rested,
And his being turned to pain:
Thus four hundred years tormented,
Nature's God he learnt to know,
Yet his pride was unrepented,
And he sunk to endless woe!





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