Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
The Tower of Babel
By Nicholas Michell (1807–1880)F
A rugged pile, like some grim giant, stands:
Rude stones, that once, perchance, with beaming grace
Had glowed in statues, strew its circling base;
Though crushed the halls that Time’s dread secrets keep,
Still, stage on stage, the crumbling platforms sweep:
High on its brow a dark mass rears its form,
Defying ages, mocking fire and storm:
Struck by a thousand lightnings, still ’t is there,
As proud in ruin, haughty in despair.
O oldest fabric reared by hands of man!
Built ere Art’s dawn on Europe’s shores began!
Rome’s mouldering shrines, and Tadmor’s columns gray,
Beside yon mass, seem things of yesterday!
In breathless awe, in musing reverence, bow,
’T is hoary Babel glooms before you now;
The tower at which the Almighty’s shaft was hurled,
The mystery, fear, and wonder of the world!