ANTIOCH.
This View of the City is taken from a burial-ground, called, in the picturesque phraseology of the East, "The City of the Dead." There was a vulture perched on one of the tombstones.
When the vulture on the wind
Mounted as in days of old,
Leaving hope and fear behind,
What did his dark flight behold!
Conquest, in its crimson car,
Reddening sword and broken spear,
Nations gathering to the war,
These were in his wide career.
When the thunder and his wing
Swept the startled earth below,
Did the flight prophetic bring
Omen of the world we know.
Vainly did the augur seek
In its path the will of heaven;
Not to that fierce eye and beak,
Was the fated future given.
No, the future’s depths were stirred
By the white wings of the dove;
When the troubled earth first heard
Words of peace, and words of love.
Now, far other hopes arise
Over life’s enlarging day,
Science, commerce, enterprise,
Point to man his glorious way.
Where those distant deserts wind,
Even now an English band
Urge the triumphs of the mind
Through a wild and savage land.
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