25 25 HEBREW MELODIES. 3. The monarch saw, and shook, 4. Chaldea's seers are good, But here they have no skill? And the unknown letters stood Untold and awful still. And Babel's men of age Are wise and deep in lore; 5. A captive in the land, A stranger and a youth, C The lamps around were bright, 6. "Belshazzar's grave is made, "His kingdom pass'd away, "He, in the balance weigh'd, "Is light and worthless clay. "The shroud his robe of state, "His canopy the stone; "The Mede is at his gate, "The Persian on his throne!" SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS! SUN of the sleepless! melancholy star! So gleams the past, the light of other days, Which shines, but warms not with its powerless rays; A night-beam Sorrow watcheth to behold, Distinct, but distant-clear-but, oh, how cold! WERE MY BOSOM AS FALSE AS THOU DEEM'ST IT TO BE. 1. WERE my bosom as false as thou deem'st it to be, I need not have wander'd from far Galilee; It was but abjuring my creed, to efface The curse which, thou say'st, is the crime of my race. 2. If the bad never triumph, then God is with thee! Live on in thy faith; but in mine I will die. 3. I have lost for that faith more than thou canst bestow, As the God who permits thee to prosper doth know; In His hand is my heart and my hope—and in thine The land and the life which for Him I resign. HEBREW MELODIES. 29 29 HEROD'S LAMENT FOR MARIAMNE. 1. Он, Mariamne! now for thee The heart for which thou bled'st is bleeding; Revenge is lost in agony, And wild remorse to rage succeeding. Oh, Mariamne! where art thou? Thou canst not hear my bitter pleading: 2. And is she dead?-and did they dare The sword that smote her 's o'er me waving. But thou art cold, my murder'd love! For her who soars alone above, |