The Scourge of Heaven

Hast seen it pass, that cloud of darkest rim?Now red and glorious, and now gray and dim,Now sad as summer, barren in its heat?One seems to see at once rush through the nightThe smoke and turmoil from a burning siteOf some great town in fiery grasp complete.

Whence comes it? From the sea, the hills, the sky?Is it the flaming chariot from on highWhich demons to some planet seem to bring?Oh, horror! from its wondrous centre, lo!A furious stream of lightning seems to flowLike a long snake uncoiling its fell ring.

The sea! naught but the sea! waves on all sides!Vainly the sea-bird would outstrip these tides!Naught but an endless ebb and flow!Wave upon wave advancing, then controlledBeneath the depths a stream the eyes beholdRolling in the involved abyss below!

Whilst here and there great fishes in the sprayTheir silvery fins beneath the sun display,Or their blue tails lash up from out the surge,Like to a flock the sea its fleece doth fling;The horizon's edge bound by a brazen ring;Waters and sky in mutual azure merge.

"Am I to dry these seas?" exclaimed the cloud."No!" It went onward 'neath the breath of God.

Green hills, which round a limpid bayReflected, bask in the clear wave!The javelin and its buffalo prey,The laughter and the joyous stave!The tent, the manger! these describeA hunting and a fishing tribeFree as the air--their arrows flySwifter than lightning through the sky!By them is breathed the purest air,Where'er their wanderings may chance!Children and maidens young and fair,And warriors circling in the dance!Upon the beach, around the fire,Now quenched by wind, now burning higher,Like spirits which our dreams inspireTo hover o'er our trance.

Virgins, with skins of ebony,Beauteous as evening skies,Laughed as their forms they dimly seeIn metal mirrors rise;Others, as joyously as they,Were drawing for their food by day,With jet-black hands, white camels' whey,Camels with docile eyes.

Both men and women, bare,Plunged in the briny bay.Who knows them? Whence they were?Where passed they yesterday?Shrill sounds were hovering o'er,Mixed with the ocean's roar,Of cymbals from the shore,And whinnying courser's neigh.

"Is't there?" one moment asked the cloudy mass;"Is't there?" An unknown utterance answered: "Pass!"

Whitened with grain see Egypt's lengthened plains,Far as the eyesight farthest space contains,Like a rich carpet spread their varied hues.The cold sea north, southwards the burying sandDispute o'er Egypt--while the smiling landStill mockingly their empire does refuse.

Three marble triangles seem to pierce the sky,And hide their basements from the curious eye.Mountains--with waves of ashes covered o'er!In graduated blocks of six feet squareFrom golden base to top, from earth to airTheir ever heightening monstrous steps they bore.

No scorching blast could daunt the sleepless kenOf roseate Sphinx, and god of marble green,Which stood as guardians o'er the sacred ground.For a great port steered vessels huge and fleet,A giant city bathed her marble feetIn the bright waters round.

One heard the dread simoom in distance roar,Whilst the crushed shell upon the pebbly shoreCrackled beneath the crocodile's huge coil.Westwards, like tiger's skin, each separate isleSpotted the surface of the yellow Nile;Gray obelisks shot upwards from the soil.

The star-king set. The sea, it seemed to holdIn the calm mirror this live globe of gold,This world, the soul and torchbearer of our own.In the red sky, and in the purple streak,Like friendly kings who would each other seek,Two meeting suns were shown.

"Shall I not stop?" exclaimed the impatient cloud."Seek!" trembling Tabor heard the voice of God.

Sand, sand, and still more sand!The desert! Fearful land!Teeming with monsters dreadAnd plagues on every hand!Here in an endless flow,Sandhills of golden glow,Where'er the tempests blow,Like a great flood are spread.Sometimes the sacred spotHears human sounds profane, whenAs from Ophir or from MemphreStretches the caravan.From far the eyes, its trailAlong the burning shaleBending its wavering tail,Like a mottled serpent scan.These deserts are of God!His are the bounds alone,Here, where no feet have trod,To Him its centre known!And from this smoking seaVeiled in obscurity,The foam one seems to seeIn fiery ashes thrown.

"Shall desert change to lake?" cried out the cloud."Still further!" from heaven's depths sounded that Voice aloud.

Like tumbled waves, which a huge rock surround;Like heaps of ruined towers which strew the ground,See Babel now deserted and dismayed!Huge witness to the folly of mankind;Four distant mountains when the moonlight shinedSeem covered with its shade.

O'er miles and miles the shattered ruins spreadBeneath its base, from captive tempests bred,The air seemed filled with harmony strange and dire;While swarmed around the entire human raceA future Babel, on the world's whole spaceFixed its eternal spire.

Up to the zenith rose its lengthening stair,While each great granite mountain lent a shareTo form a stepping base;Height upon height repeated seemed to rise,For pyramid on pyramid the strainèd eyesSaw take their ceaseless place.

Through yawning walls huge elephants stalked by;Under dark pillars rose a forestry,Pillars by madness multiplied;As round some giant hive, all day and night,Huge vultures, and red eagles' wheeling flightWas through each porch descried.

"Must I complete it?" said the angered cloud."On still!" "Lord, whither?" groaned it, deep not loud.

Two cities, strange, unknown in history's page,Up to the clouds seemed scaling, stage by stage,Noiseless their streets; their sleeping inmates lie,Their gods, their chariots, in obscurity!Like sisters sleeping 'neath the same moonlight,O'er their twin towers crept the shades of night,Whilst scarce distinguished in the black profound,Stairs, aqueducts, great pillars, gleamed around,And ruined capitals: then was seen a groupOf granite elephants 'neath a dome to stoop,Shapeless, giant forms to view arise,Monsters around, the spawn of hideous ties!Then hanging gardens, with flowers and galleries:O'er vast fountains bending grew ebon-trees;Temples, where seated on their rich tiled thrones,Bull-headed idols shone in jasper stones;Vast halls, spanned by one block, where watch and stareEach upon each, with straight and moveless glare,Colossal heads in circles; the eye seesGreat gods of bronze, their hands upon their knees.Sight seemed confounded, and to have lost its powers,'Midst bridges, aqueducts, arches, and round towers,Whilst unknown shapes fill up the devious viewsFormed by these palaces and avenues.Like capes, the lengthening shadows seem to riseOf these dark buildings, pointed to the skies,Immense entanglement in shroud of gloom!The stars which gleamed in the empyrean dome,Under the thousand arches in heaven's spaceShone as through meshes of the blackest lace.Cities of hell, with foul desires demented,And monstrous pleasures, hour by hour invented!Each roof and home some monstrous mystery bore!Which through the world spread like a twofold sore!Yet all things slept, and scarce some pale late lightFlitted along the streets through the still night,Lamps of debauch, forgotten and alone,The feast's lost fires left there to flicker on;The walls' large angles clove the light-lengthening shades'Neath the white moon, or on some pool's face played.Perchance one heard, faint in the plain beneath,The kiss suppressed, the mingling of the breath;And the two sister cities, tired of heat,In love's embrace lay down in murmurs sweet!Whilst sighing winds the scent of sycamoreFrom Sodom to Gomorrah softly bore!Then over all spread out the blackened cloud,"'Tis here!" the Voice on high exclaimed aloud.

From a cavern wideIn the rent cloud's side,In sulphurous showersThe red flame pours.The palaces fallIn the lurid light,Which casts a red pallO'er their facades white!

Oh, Sodom! Gomorrah!What a dome of horrorRests now on your walls!On you the cloud falls,Nation perverse!On your fated heads,From its fell jaws, a curseIts lightning fierce spreads!

The people awakenWhich godlessly slept;Their palaces shaken,Their offences unwept!Their rolling cars allMeet and crash in the street;And the crowds, for a pall,Find flames round their feet!

Numberless dead,Round these high towers spread,Still sleep in the shadeBy their rugged heights made;Colossi of rocksIn ill-steadied blocks!So hang on a wallBlack ants, like a pall!

To escape is in vainFrom this horrible rain!Alas! all things die;In the lightning's red flashThe bridges all crash;'Neath the tiles the flame creeps;From the fire-struck steepsFalls on the pavements below,All lurid in glow,Rolling down from on high!

Beneath every spark,The red, tyrannous fireMounts up in the darkEver redder and higher;More swiftly than steedUncontrolled, see it pass!Horrid idols all twist,By the crumbling flame kissedIn their infamous dread,Shrivelled members of brass!

It grows angry, flows on,Silver towers fall downUnforeseen, like a dreamIn its green and red stream,Which lights up the wallsEre one crashes and falls,Like the changeable scaleOf a lizard's bright mail.Agate, porphyry, cracksAnd is melted to wax!Bend low to their doomThese stones of the tomb!E'en the great marble giantCalled Nabo, sways pliantLike a tree; whilst the flareSeemed each column to scorchAs it blazed like a torchRound and round in the air.

The magi, in vain,From the heights to the plainTheir gods' images carryIn white tunic: they quake--No idol can makeThe blue sulphur tarry;The temple e'en where they meet,Swept under their feetIn the folds of its sheet!Turns a palace to coal!Whence the straitened cries rollFrom its terrified flock;With incendiary gripsIt loosens a block,Which smokes and then slipsFrom its place by the shock;To the surface first sheers,Then melts, disappears,Like the glacier, the rock!The high priest, full of years,On the burnt site appears,Whence the others have fled.Lo! his tiara's caught fireAs the furnace burns higher,And pale, full of dread,See, the hand he would raiseTo tear his crown from the blazeIs flaming instead!

Men, women, in crowdsHurry on--the fire shroudsAnd blinds all their eyesAs, besieging each gateOf these cities of fateTo the conscience-struck crowd,In each fiery cloud,Hell appears in the skies!

Men say that then, to see his foe's sad fallAs some old prisoner clings to his prison wall,Babel, accomplice of their guilt, was seenO'er the far hills to gaze with vision keen!And as was worked this dispensation strange,A wondrous noise filled the world's startled range;Reached the dull hearing that deep, direful soundOf their sad tribe who live below the ground.

'Gainst this pitiless flame who condemned could prevail?Who these walls, burnt and calcined, could venture to scale?Yet their vile hands they sought to uplift,Yet they cared still to ask from what God, by what law?In their last sad embrace, 'midst their honor and awe,Of this mighty volcano the drift.'Neath great slabs of marble they hid them in vain,'Gainst this everliving fire, God's own flaming rain!'Tis the rash whom God seeks out the first;They call on their gods, who were deaf to their cries,For the punishing flame caused their cold granite eyesIn tears of hot lava to burst!Thus away in the whirlwind did everything pass,The man and the city, the soil and its grass!God burnt this sad, sterile champaign;Naught living was left of this people destroyed,And the unknown wind which blew over the void,Each mountain changed into a plain.

The palm-tree that grows on the rock to this day,Feels its leaf growing yellow, its slight stem decay,In the blasting and ponderous air;These towns are no more! but to mirror their past,O'er their embers a cold lake spread far and spread fast,With smoke like a furnace, lies there!