66

And Saul can answer now alas! his fate
Is hopeless all, and more than desolate.
The battle lost, his kingdom torn away,
All clouds and darkness life's fast-closing day.
Hark! 't is the Shade declares : Another sun,
Thou man of woe and crime! thy race is run;
To-morrow Hades opes its gloom for thee,
Thou and thy warrior sons shall be with me!"
And so it fell; the fierce unpitying, foe
Triumphed o'er Saul, and laid his followers low;
And yonder rise those hills in lonely pride,
Where on his sword the king in anguish died,
And gentle Jonathan's career was o'er,

To shield his friend, and warm with love no more.
Nicholas Michell

Esdraelon, Plain of.

PLAIN OF ESDRAELON.

SDRAELON'S plain still boasts its myrtle bowers,

ESDR

Golden with corn, or carpeted with flowers:

How like a sainted mind that seeks the skies,
Crowned with a glory, Tabor's tops arise!
From base to summit groves are waving green,
While many a hoary ruin peeps between.
Here mouldered church and fallen convent show
How warm was zeal a thousand years ago;
In yon stone cell the hermit knelt to pray,

And passed in dreams his martyr life away.

Jasmine's white bells and henna's yellow bloom Breathe out their sweets till rocks e'en drink perfume; In viewless clouds those odors mount the air,

And Tabor stands like some rich altar there.

Nicholas Michell.

Galilee.

GALILEE.

UT now in beauty and in light we see

BUT

The hills and vales of far-famed Galilee.

Though man may walk no more, as in old time,
With step of freedom, and with brow sublime;
Though on the Jew the Moslem pours disdain,
And thinks him less than reptile of the plain;
Though Rapine, mocking law, may prowl the land,
And Murder daily rear her blood-stained hand,
Still Nature smiles, and Galilee appears
Fair as a bride, although a bride in tears.
In Jezreel's vale the corn is waving deep,
Fir, larch, and myrtle grace high Tabor's steep;
In warm Sepphoris' beds the tulip's streak
Rivals red Morn when soft her blushes break;
Ten thousand pansies breathe their odorous breath,
And orchards bloom round holy Nazareth;
While birds with song, as cooler eve comes on,
Fill the green groves of bowery Zebulon.

Nicholas Michell.

Anatolius, Patriarch of Constantinople. Tr. J. M. Neale.

Galilee (Tabaria), the Sea of.

SEA OF GALILEE.

LOW moves our skiff o'er still Tabaria's tide, Through whose clear azure fish are seen to glide; Abrupt and steep the girdling mountains frown, Gigantic shadows stealing darkly down.

No murmuring crowds move busy on the shore,
No shepherd sings, or fisher plies his oar;
No voice in heaven, no whisper from the cave,
Man seems unborn, and Nature here a grave.
A quiet sadness fills the musing mind,

We fain would speak, but language may not find.
Yet, not like Sodom's waters, here we trace
A holy beauty and a solemn grace;

Though man may now desert yon silent strand,
Fancy will call up forms on wave and land;
A thousand memories treasured still shall be,
And linked throughout all time, fair lake, with thee.
Here lowly Peter's youthful days were past,
In yon green cove, perchance, his net was cast;
Here, mingling blood with pure and sparkling foam,
In her last throes Judæa fought with Rome;

On yon fair Mount that blessed discourse was given
By One who spoke as angels speak in heaven.
Lo! on the lake, day's farewell smiles expire,
And night's deep shadows wrap each rocky spire;
Struggling with winds, and tossed on surges dark,