-- I hear abroad The exultation of unfetter'd earth! -- From east to west they lift their trampled necks, The indignant nations: earth breaks out in scorn; The valleys dance and sing; the mountains shake Their cedar-crowned tops! The strangers crowd To gaze upon the howling wilderness, Where stood the Queen of Nations. Lo! even now, Lazy Euphrates rolls his sullen waves Through wastes, and but reflects his own thick reeds. I hear the bitterns shriek, the dragons cry; I see the shadow of the midnight owl Gliding where now are laughter-echoing palaces! O'er the vast plain I see the mighty tombs Of kings, in sad and broken whiteness gleam Beneath the o'ergrown cypress -- but no tomb Bears record, Babylon, of thy last lord; Even monuments are silent of Belshazzar! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE INDIAN EMPEROR: SONG by JOHN DRYDEN HEART'S-EASE by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR THE EMPEROR'S BIRD'S-NEST by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW MONNA INNOMINATA, A SONNET OF SONNETS: 3 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI VENICE by JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS THE DESTINY OF GENIUS by MARIA ABDY |