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;
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed 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 rolled 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.

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.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.


Today's poem is in the public domain.

About this poem:

Sennacherib was killed by two of his sons for his desecration of Babylon. One story tells of one of Sennacherib's sons toppling a giant lamassu onto him, crushing him to death. 

Poetry by George Gordon Byron

Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)

Don Juan (Penguin Classics)

 

September 16, 2012
George Gordon Byron Lord Byron
Born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1788, Byron inherited his family's English title at the age of ten, becoming Baron Byron of Rochdale. 
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