Behold the wedded virgin's charms Snatch'd from her bleeding bridegroom's arms, Her fond name lisping with his last sad breath, And clasping in the pangs of death! 'See the sweet babe upon its murderer smile, The mother stands, as turn'd to stone; 'House of my God! I see the' unpitying fire High o'er thy venerable domes aspire; Resistless rolls the flaming deluge on, [down. Totter thy cracking towers, and dash with clangour Thy sacred floors with slaughter'd prophets strew'd, With priestly gore imbrued. Joy of the earth! where is thy beauty now? Where the proud grace that crown'd thy beamy And state imperial? sorrowing I behold Turret on turret roll'd, [brow And dome on dome in wild confusion hurl'd, With sighs remember'd, uttered with a tear, VOL. I. K Fallen art thou, Salem! mingled with the dust! In palaces of mighty men The strutting ostrich stalks; There gorged with blood the ravening vulture hies, There to her mate the screaming night-bird cries; The hissing serpent haunts the dread abode, Whose trembling walls revered the' indwelling God. There the grim lions thirst for human gore; And heard at distance by the shuddering swain 'Cross the drear horrors of the desert plain, Amid the hollow howling ruins roar!' 1 There paused the prophet's song― Like statues fixed, in mute amazement stood, the blood. Proud Salem bows-her conscious turrets quake; The deep foundations of the temple shake; Above their banks the' affrighted waters flow; Blue flames athwart the flashing ether glow; Hoarse peals in loud redoubled roll resound, Roar the reechoing caverns-rocks the ground— Nod the high mountain tops, and tremble all around! REV. H. MOORE. MOSES VIEWING THE PROMISED And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountains of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah unto the utmost Sea; and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of Palm Trees unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. DEUT. xxxiv. 1-4. As some poor pilgrim, long condemned to roam, A pensive wanderer from his cheerful home, Pants to return the dear delights to hail, Which breathe their influence o'er his native vale; If chance, at length, he scales some mountain's height, And all his country swells upon the sight; So, warned by Him whose all commanding Calls man to life, and marks his destined hour, This poem is atrtibuted to C. Grant, Esq. author of the prize poem on the Restoration of Learning in the East. Whose far horizon marks the distant land, Through the wide realm, what scenes of wonder From his rapt bosom burst the' impassion'd strain- around, And golden harvests bless the verdant ground. Here blooms the land of Palm Trees †, grateful soil; There groaning presses flow with streams of oil; * Deut. xxxiii. 28. + Deut. xxxiv. 4. Whilst flowery Carmel lifts his summits high, The destined borders of Manasseh's name: He spoke and paused: for now celestial light Invite the smile or stay the bolts of God? Say, shall the mutter'd spell, the midnight charm Unnerve the vigour of Jehovah's arm? * Josh. xv. and xvii. |