Classic Poem

O God, why hast thou thus
Repuls'd, and scatter'd us?
Shall now thy wrath no limits hold,
But ever smoke and burn
Till it to ashes turn
The chosen folk of thy dear fold?

Ah! think with milder thought
On them whom thou hast bought
And purchased from endless days!
Think of thy birthright lot
Of Sion, on whose plot
Thy sacred house supported stays.

Come, Lord, O come with speed!
This sacrilegious seed
Root quickly out, and headlong cast;
All that thy holy place
Did late adorn and grace,
Their hateful hands have quite defac'd.

Their beastly trumpets roar'
Where heavenly notes before
In praises of thy might did flow;
Within thy temple they
Their ensigns oft display,
The ensigns, which their conquest show.

As men with axe on arm
To some thick forest swarm
To lop the trees which stately stand,
They to thy temple flock
And, spoiling, cut and knock
The curious works of carving hand.

Thy most, most holy seat
The greedy flames do eat
And have such ruthless ruin wrought
That all thy house is rased,
So rased and so defac'd
That of that all remaineth nought.

Nay, they resolved are
We all alike shall fare,
All of one cruel cup shall taste.
For not one house doth stand
Of God in all the land
But they by fire have laid it waste.

We see the signs no more
We wont to see before;
Nor any now with spirit divine
Amongst us more is found,
Who can to us expound
What term these dolours shall define.

How long, O God, how long
Wilt thou wink at the wrong
Of thy reviling, railing foe?
Shall he that hates thy name,
And hatred paints with shame,
So do, and do for ever so?

Woe us! what is the cause
Thy hand it help withdraws,
That thy right hand far from us keeps?
Ah let it once arise
To plague thine enemies
Which now, embosomed, idly sleeps!

Thou art my God, I know,
My King, who long ago
Didst undertake the charge of me;
And in my hard distress
Didst work me such release
That all the earth did wond'ring see.

Thou by thy might didst make
The seas in sunder break,
And dreadful dragons which before
In deep or swam or crawl'd,
Such mortal strokes appall'd
They floated dead to ev'ry shore.

Thou crush'd that monster's head
Whom other monsters dread,
And so his fishy flesh didst frame
To serve as pleasing food
To all the ravening brood
Who had the desert for their dame.

Thou wondrously didst cause,
Repealing nature's laws,
From thirsty flint a fountain flow,
And of the rivers clear
The sandy beds appear,
So dry thou mad'st their channels grow.

The day array'd in light,
The shadow-clothed night,
Were made, and are maintain'd, by thee.
The sun, and sun-like rays,
The bounds of nights and days,
Thy workmanship no less they be.

To thee the earth doth owe
That earth in sea doth grow,
And sea doth earth from drowning spare;
The summer's corny crown,
The winter's frosty gown,
Nought but thy badge, thy livery are.

Thou, then, still one, the same,
Think how thy glorious name
These brain-sick men's despite has borne,
How abject enemies
The Lord of highest skies
With cursed, taunting tongues have torn.

Ah! give no hawk the power
Thy turtle to devour
Which sighs to thee with mourning moans;
Nor utterly out-rase
From tables of thy grace
The flock of thy afflicted ones.

But call thy league to mind,
For horror all doth blind,
No light doth in the land remain;
Rape, murder, violence,
Each outrage, each offence,
Each where doth range, and rage and reign.

Enough, enough we mourn!
Let us no more return
Repuls'd with blame and shame from thee;
But soccour us oppress'd
And give the troubled rest
That of thy praise their songs may be.

Rise, God, plead thine own case;
Forget not what disgrace
These fools on thee each day bestow;
Forget not with what cries
Thy foes against thee rise,
Which more and more to heav'n do grow.