Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Syria: Olivet, the Mount | | Mount Olivet | | Nicholas Michell (1807–1880) |
| | (From Ruins of Many Lands)
FAREWELL! on Olivet’s famed mount we stand, | |
| And view once more this sad but glorious land; | |
| Here, lost in thought, the bard might linger long, | |
| But we must break our dream, and close our song. | |
| The sun with purple paints the western hills, | 5 |
| And earth and heaven a holy quiet fills; | |
| Calm in her desolation Salem sleeps, | |
| Round Omar’s mosque the tall green cypress weeps; | |
| Soft gleam the rays on church and convent-spire, | |
| And each slight minaret is tipped with fire: | 10 |
| Peace, like an angel, midst the coming gloom | |
| O’er Calvary hangs, and wraps Messiah’s tomb. | |
| A spell on that dim city seems to lie, | |
| And hush the hills around, and crimson sky; | |
| It is not age or mystery or despair, | 15 |
| It is not death which casts a shadow there, | |
| But sadness for a blighted, fallen race, | |
| A once proud nation that has lost its place,— | |
| A sorrow that invests each ancient spot, | |
| By feeling reverenced, memory ne’er forgot, | 20 |
| And as we muse and think of brighter years, | |
| The eye still gazes on, and fills with tears. | | | | |
|
|
