work!
“Her emerald columns o’er the marble courts
“Fling their green rays, as when amid a shower
“The sun shines loveliest on the vernal corn.
“Here Shedad bade the sapphire floor be laid,
“As tho’ with feet divine
“To trample azure light,
“Like the blue pavement of the firmament.
“Here self-suspended hangs in air,
“As its pure substance loathed material touch,
“The living[13] carbuncle;
“Sun of the lofty dome
“Darkness has no dominion o’er its beams;
“Intense it glows, an ever-flowing tide
“Of glory, like the day-flood in its source.
“Impious! the Trees of vegetable gold,
“Such as in Eden’s groves
“Yet innocent it[14] grew,
“Impious! he made his boast, tho’ heaven had hidden
“So deep the baneful ore,
“That they should branch and bud for him,
“That art should force their blossoms and their fruit,
“And re-create for him,
“Whate’er was lost in Paradise.
“Therefore at Shedad’s voice
“Here towered the palm, a silver trunk,
“The fine gold net-work[15] growing out
“Loose from its rugged boughs.
“Tall as the Cedar of the mountain, here
“Rose the gold branches, hung with emerald leaves,
“Blossomed with pearls, and rich with ruby fruit,
“O Ad! my country! evil was the day
“That thy unhappy sons
“Crouched at this Nimrod’s throne,[16]
“And placed him on the pedestal of power,
“And laid their liberties beneath his feet,
“Robbing their children of the heritance
“Their fathers handed down.
“What was to him the squandered wealth?
“What was to him the burthen of the land,
“The lavished misery?
“He did but speak his will,
“And like the blasting Siroc of the East,
“The ruin of the royal voice
“Found its way every-where.
“I marvel not that he, whose power
“No earthly law, no human feeling curbed,
“Mocked at the living God!