-- 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...ON A PORTRAIT OF WORDSWORTH BY B.R. HAYDON by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING LOVERS, AND A REFLECTION by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY A BALLAD OF TREES AND THE MASTER by SIDNEY LANIER UNDER THE OAK by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE |