The Old World, not the New, by man misnamed;
Cradle and grave of mouldering nations vast;
Whose stalwart spirit stature, seen, had shamed
The mightiest of known empires, present, past.
The land where Adam dwelt[6], where Eden cast
From flaming gate the heaven-appointed pair,
Who fell that man might be; a fall still chaste[7],
Albeit they sinned, descending death's dread stair,
To fling life's ladder down, Love's work[8] and way prepare. 1470
Here rose the Zion of primeval days[9],
Type of a greater Zion yet to rise;
Here Enoch's walls and towers reflung the rays,
Rolled back the flooding splendors of the skies,
Whose portal wide gave welcome. Upward flies
The sainted city, self denied, dethroned:
In all things one, their power e'en death defies:
In dust they ne'er shall slumber; cleansed, condoned,
They wait the final change[10], through Him who hath atoned.
Here cometh up the New Jerusalem[11]; 1480
Here cometh down that risen realm of old,
Jehovah's seat, earth's jeweled diadem,
Joy of the world, by prophet tongues extolled.
Japheth, here joined with Shem[12], finds Israel's fold,
An ark of peace[13] amid a world of war.
The ensign[14] on the mountains here behold!
'Tis Joseph signals Jacob[15] from afar,
And points him to the goal where God and glory are.
Ancient of Days[16] here sits, as at the first,
When time and earth and Adam's race were young; 1490
When, bowed with age, a great soul's sunset burst
In blessings on his seed. Prophetic tongue,
Thy patriarchal tone through time hath rung!
Michael, the prince, the monarch of our race,
Sire of a world from dust and spirit sprung;
Here sits he, throned in fire; before his face
Ten thousand times ten thousand throng the judgment place.
Wherefore this land must unpolluted be;
Or, if defiled, by blood again made clean
From grime of sin, from grind of tyranny; 1500
Free from the ills that other lands have seen,
Free from the blots that now dim freedom's sheen.
No nation by vain boasting shall abide;
Bid thine beware, lest here the sanguine scene
Reacted be, and ruin, spawn of pride,
Spring from the soil where nations great as thine have died.
Hesperia[17], be just—the right maintain,
And foe without, nor foe within, prevails!
Here nations slay themselves, if they be slain,—
Brother 'gainst brother, sire 'gainst son, till fails 1510
The fount of widow's tears and orphan's wails.
Hear thou that servant[18] whom the Father sends—
Hear him and heed, ere Japheth's planet pales,
That peace and freedom may remain thy friends,
While hither, from all lands, all worlds, God's legion[19] wends.
A gathering from all glories thou shalt see,
Blest land of Joseph[20], honored, lifted high!
Thy brother lands come bending unto thee,
And Gog and Magog[21] menace but to die.
While they that serve the Lord with single eye 1520
Shall see Him in the midst; the goal then won,
When time no longer flecks eternity,
Nor need is there of star, or moon, or sun,
Since He, light's self, is risen, and heaven and earth are one.
Thus far the angel, Ramah's sentinel,
His vigil keeping on that lonely hill;
And thus the spelled yet speechful auditor,
Around the hearthside of that humble home.
There sire and matron, trusted kith and kin,
Give faithful credence to the story strange, 1530
Pondering the tidings wise and wonderful.
Thence oft above that mount of mystery,
Of buried lore the solemn sepulchre,
Meet modern seer and ancient oracle.
And while humility at wisdom's feet
Expectant waits, where truth from earth shall spring,
Comes, as from riven tomb, this wondrous tale:
Where Joseph[22], where wast thou, that time when torn
Was earth asunder; ocean's cleaving sword
The wedded lands wide severing[23]? Where, when borne 1540
Deep through the watery world, as there devoured
By wind and wave that harmless o'er them roared,
The pilgrim sons of Shinar[24]—favored band,
From that far clime where Babel's folly towered
And language foundered on confusion's strand—
Won here a precious heritage, a promised land?