Middletown transcript., 1869-05-15


/" And there shall be great cry throughout
nii the land of Egypt, such as there was none
like 1t, nor shall be Like it any more"
Night reigned supreme,
And waved her sceptre over Mizraim's brow:
The burning Sun, wearied with regal pomp,
To cool the ardor of his fever 4 brain,
And woo the grateful slumbers of repose,
Had stolen from the gorgeous Court of Day,
And sought the freshness of his royal couch.
No silver moon usurped the vacant throne
TO shed benigner glory DER her realm:
NO jewel cour,iers throng d heavens arched
saloons,
To hail the advent of its Empress there:
Thick, murky darkness, like funeral pail,
Spread its black mantle heavy O or the land,
And hung the veiled sky with rank festoons
VI sable drapery, like the mourning weeds,
That droop their sadness o'er the bleeding heart
The @rid soil, charged with redundant heat,
It's caloriic respiration flung
With radiating speed against the Clouds
Whose polished front reflected back the glow,
In close and sutiocatng sultriness.
No dewy exhalation gently bathed
Inc hot and sweltering bosom of the earth
With its delicious coolness for the rays
Of Egypts sun had kindlcd into life,
That wasting fever whose insatiate thirst,
Had drunk the fountain of her lifc-bood up
The air was dumb and motonless, and hung
In stliing, choking stiffness DER the land.
A solemn quiet, strange and full of awe,
80 fearfully pervading, SO profound,
so pregnant with the inexorable fate
vi Chemia's smittcn State, wrapp'd heaven aad
earth
In mystic lab rnths of impending gloom.
The wearied beast with instinct quick inspired,
More keen and sharp than Reasons sober edge
Hose up afrighted from his midnight lair,
And glared his eyeballs through the dusty air.
The raven tapped her pinions far on high,
Croaking unearthly requiems, and the fierce,
Untamed hycna shook his shaggy name,
And sought the accustomed sepulchre for prey
Black as the inky tide of Lethe's pool
The sluggish waters of the Nile roll d on,
In sullen silence Der its Shiny bed.
All, all was hushed to quiet and repose
The imperious monarch and p!ebian slave
In pride and mis'ry slept alike profound,
Nor dream'd of judgment present or to come.
But in the depths Of that dark midnight hour,
A sudden cry is heard-a scream of wo
Breaks on the slumb' ring porches of the ear.
And starts the sleeping sense; the palace halls,
Those old monarchial dens where cruel wrong
And cold relentless tyranny first breathed
Their blghting uildew, on the Hebrews heart
Where squallid penury and voluptuous case
SO strangely met-those old ancestral courts,
whose tessellated pavements had been pressed
by the proud heel of long line of kings,
Reverberate the loud imperial shriek
The kingly wall and trembling despots groan,
The stiffness of the dungeon is disturbed
by the hoarse murmur Of the captve's moan
zNhu oii CuIscu lhllC eCuOeS WIN nOwlS
OF bitter maedictions; blind with fear,
And wrought to phrenzy, from their smoking
beds,
Men rush impetuonsly to and fro
The narrow streets resound with dismal wells
From human beings frantic with dspair
And midst the uproar OF the dolefui scene,
The Egyptian dog his long-drawn death-howl
pours.
All Egypt groans with grief for o'cr the land,
tn avenging Angel of the Lord hath passed
And in his flight each sleeping threshold crossed,
Quenching in death the noblest spirit there
And yet not all of Egypt was thus cursed
With darkness palpable and Cimmcran gloom
One favor'd spot escaped the general DOOM
W hose fertile fields and eyer-fruitful plains,
Were peopled by the chosen of the Lord,
The full orb'd moon rode through its cloudless
skies
an qneenly beauty, bathing earth and sea
With liquid silver, and the twink ling stars
Pressing from their cerulean loop holes in the sky
Like faithful sentinels on some mighty tower.
In ceaseess round their midnight vigils kept.
Goshen lay quiet in the arms of night.
And Israel slnmbered in the hands of God
No voice was heard--no fears disturbed her
dream;
No baying house-dog moved his noisy tongue
Gainst man or beast; yet 'er each silent hearth
Ihe viewless messenger of Death appeared
And barred his reeking sword but smote it not,
For over every door was writ in blood
On post and Intel, in confding faith,
Her Covenant with God