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(From The Spirit of Discovery by Sea)
SO did thy ships to earth’s wide bounds proceed, | |
| O Tyre! and thou wert rich and beautiful | |
| In that thy day of glory. Carthage rose, | |
| Thy daughter, and the rival of thy fame, | |
| Upon the sands of Lybia; princes were | 5 |
| Thy merchants; on thy golden throne thy state | |
| Shone, like the orient sun. Dark Lebanon | |
| Waved all his pines for thee; for thee the oaks | |
| Of Bashan towered in strength: thy galleys cut, | |
| Glittering, the sunny surge; thy mariners, | 10 |
| On ivory benches, furled the embroidered sails, | |
| That looms of Egypt wove, or to the oars, | |
| That measuring dipped, their choral sea-songs sung; | |
| The multitude of isles did shout for thee, | |
| And cast their emeralds at thy feet, and said, | 15 |
| Queen of the Waters, who is like to thee! | |
| So wert thou glorious on the seas, and saidst, | |
| I am a god, and there is none like me. | |
| But the dread voice prophetic is gone forth: | |
| Howl, for the whirlwind of the desert comes! | 20 |
| Howl ye again, for Tyre, her multitude | |
| Of sins and dark abominations cry | |
| Against her, saith the Lord; in the mid seas | |
| Her beauty shall be broken; I will bring | |
| Her pride to ashes; she shall be no more; | 25 |
| The distant isles shall tremble at the sound | |
| When thou dost fall; the princes of the sea | |
| Shall from their thrones come down, and cast away | |
| Their gorgeous robes; for thee they shall take up | |
| A bitter lamentation, and shall say, | 30 |
| How art thou fallen, renowned city! thou, | |
| Who wert enthroned glorious on the seas, | |
| To rise no more! | |
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