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!
—George Gordon, Lord Byron
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