Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.

Syria: Bethlehem

Rachel’s Tomb

By 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;

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.