Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Syria: Bethlehem | | Rachel’s Tomb | | Nicholas Michell (1807–1880) |
| | (From Ruins of Many Lands)
WHAT mouldering pile near Ephrath stands alone, | |
| With dome-shaped top, and base of massy stone? | |
| Rude is the chamber where her bones repose, | |
| Yet here, ’t is said, fair Rachel’s pillar rose. | |
| Ah! sad her fate in Nature’s pangs to die; | 5 |
| To sorrowing friends I hear her parting sigh; | |
| I see her husband’s woe, his streaming tear, | |
| His last fond kiss before he laid her here, | |
| His anguished brow, where smiles no more would be, | |
| For ne’er was wife, poor Rachel! loved like thee. | 10 | | | |
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