Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79.

Turkey in Europe, and the Principalities: Constantinople (Byzantium, Stamboul)

The Empire of the East

By Edna Dean Proctor (1829–1923)

HAIL to the glorious morning

When the Cross again shall shine

On the summit of Saint Sophia,

O city of Constantine!

And that day of sack and slaughter

When the wild, despairing cries

Of “Kyrie Eleison!” fainter

Went wailing up to the skies,

Shall be lost in the splendid triumph

As the Church reclaims her own,

And the Patriarch welcomes our Lord the Czar

To the Cæsars’ ancient throne!

In the sky of the south, at midnight,

We have seen God’s flaming sign,

And we know he will drive the Moslem horde,

As chaff, from his sacred shrine!

Silent will be the muezzin

As the sun on Asia sets;

Folded the crescent banner;

Crumbled the minarets.

Then in the grand Cathedral

Victorious chants we ’ll raise,

While the saints look down with loving eyes,

And the gems of the altar blaze.

Hail to the day when the Eagles

And the Cross shall gain their own,

As the Patriarch welcomes our Lord the Czar

To the Cæsars’ ancient throne!