THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB

" One lesson, shepherd, let us two divide,
Taught both by what she shows, and what conceals
Never to blend our pleasure or our pride
With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels."

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB
THE Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold ;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen : 10
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath
blown,
That host on the morrow lay wither3d and strown.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd ;
And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew
still!
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there roll'd not the breath of his
pride ;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. 20
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.