Smyrna times., 1859-10-20
RIGINAL POEM.
Written for the Smyrna Times.
The Burning of Moscow.

The sun had disappeared and sudden night
Robed in her storm-lOrtellng drapery,
Arose, in silent, awful majesty;
The winds that pit the wide-extended plain
In many wanton gust had sunk to rest,
Fen as the swaying, murmuring multitude
Subslde as they behold the culprit led
TO death. The lofty clouds o'erspread the sky
With motion imperceptble, until
vast and starless vault shut in the night
Rayess, save when from the far distant dome,
Which form'd its den the serpeut-lightning sprang
And showed city founded on the plain,
NOiselesss. when the deep.toned thunder rose
And shook great Mjscows deepIy-seated walls
Another hour beheld another scene
Which night could not extingush from the heavens
Fen a the airy castle Fancy rears
The massive temrr..c .. .. - :1e storm had passed
Before the ehainless unim9risoned flame,
The burning city cast lurid glare
Far Der the expanding waste, nocturnal shades
Fled back an formed dense surrounding wall,
And ghasy day, shone mid the realms of night,
Cast from the red abyss Of raging lime
fitting brow for such a wrathful eye
Back fields Of smoke Oerspread the glaring scene,
Slowly they rise and form distant cloud
Which. in is blackness sternly fixed,
Hang darkly 'twixt the eartn and blood.red sky,
And seem to threaten vengeance on the flames
For giving thus city to the winds.
So when the glare Of war and clash OF arms
Show that mans natural element is hell,
Rejoice, for in that strife which never dies out
Woman and cats at last may scratch their eyes olt,)
And CORY heaps of writhing flesh send forth
COmmingled groans lost IN din of battle,
The savage souls of slaughtered warriors rise
And lowering watch the awful strife below;
Fer hro the clouds they take their everlasting fl ght
Der the broad plain rooted by the flaming sky,
Fenced IN the black walls of rayess night.
Scattered in countless groups sits the po.r slavei
Lstess he gazes on his burning bone,
Or else with cleached fist, fierce eye and cursing
lie raves 10 see the wildly-surging flames tongue
Relentless changing into empty smoke
His cherished home, which must be the grave
Then with last deep curse, he turns his back
Upon the glarng scene, and plungIng deep
Amid the shadows Of surrounding night,
lie seeks the wilderness, perhaps 10 be
The food of wolves, and as with maddened pace
He flies along, again and yet again
lie turns his eyes, now sckening in despair,
TO where his native city flames afar
Aud deeply curses and warlike Gaul;
Meanwhile the mobiles, drawn by foamIng steeds,
Rush past, nor heed the struggling sufferer
Why should the bitter tear bedim their eye!
Why from their fur-cad breasts should groans arise
Shall lords and ladies stoop to mourn with slaves!
Not as the earthquake comes, with giant strength,
Came thy Destroyer City of the Plain!
Time, the uniiring enemy of Art,
As set had touched thy gilded domes in vain,
But CUnAagraon's fierce, resIstess tide
Swept DER thee and destroyed the work of years;
0Ae hour thy plared strength was Russa's pride,
Another saw thee lost in smoke and flame,
Which past. thy moudering ashas etremain-
These the next wind shall scatter far and wide,
The mournlul relics of what once besieging storm
de6ep.