The Destruction of Sennacherib

¹The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

²And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

³And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

⁴When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

⁵Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,

⁶That host with their banners at sunset were seen:

⁷Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,

⁸That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

⁹For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,

¹⁰And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;

¹¹And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,

¹²And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

¹³And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

¹⁴But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;

¹⁵And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,

¹⁶And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

¹⁷And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

¹⁸With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:

¹⁹And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

²⁰The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

²¹And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,

²²And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

²³And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

²⁴Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!