Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TRANSLATION OF THE PATRIARCH, by LUCY A. RANDALL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TRANSLATION OF THE PATRIARCH, by                    
First Line: No tombstone saw they there
Last Line: Reveals how enoch went home to him.
Subject(s): Angels; Bible; Death; God; Heaven; Jews; Dead, The; Paradise; Judaism


NO tombstone saw they there,
No sepulchre's pallid gleam;
But a quiver went through the blue bright air,
Like a thrill of a glorious dream.
And the stately palm trees bowed,
By old Euphrates' tide;
And the deep sky glowed, like a burning cloud,
Or a spirit glorified.
When the good old Patriarch's footsteps trod
The sapphire pavements, that lead to God.
Where was he, when the gates
Of Heaven were opened wide?
Praying alone, like one that waits,
By Tigris' sacred tide.
Or by some lonely shore
Where the hollow echo dwells,
And sounding sea beats evermore,
'Mid rocks and strange bright shells?
Or chanting God's praises, with happy cheer,
When the songs of the angels broke on his ear?
And the gray Chaldean plains
With a golden radiance shone,
As Earth caught full the light that reigns
Beside the Eternal Throne.
Far off, and low, she heard
The flow of Life's bright stream
And the music of strange sweet melodies
That haunts her like a dream;
And only God's angels, with solemn eye,
Saw the glorious pageant passing by.
And still the rocks frown high,
Amid the shadows lone—
But their echoes nevermore reply
To the sweet angelic tone;
And an awful mystery fills
That land of unknown graves,
And ever thrills the solemn hills
That guard Euphrates' waves;
But the word of God through ages dim,
Reveals how Enoch went home to Him.





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