Explore "On the Day of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus" by Lord Byron on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I / From the last hill that looks on thy once holy dome, / I beheld thee, oh Sion! when rendered to Rome: / 'Twas thy last sun went down, and the flames of thy fall / Flashed back on the last glance I gave to thy wall.
II / I looked for thy temple-I looked for my home, / And forgot for a moment my bondage to come; / I beheld but the death-fire that fed on thy fane, / And the fast-fettered hands that made vengeance in vain.
III / On many an eve, the high spot whence I gazed / Had reflected the last beam of day as it blazed; / While I stood on the height, and beheld the decline / Of the rays from the mountain that shone on thy shrine.
IV / And now on that mountain I stood on that day, / But I marked not the twilight beam melting away; / Oh! would that the lightning had glared in its stead, / And the thunderbolt burst on the Conqueror's head!
V / But the Gods of the Pagan shall never profane / The shrine where Jehovah disdained not to reign; / And scattered and scorned as thy people may be, / Our worship, oh Father! is only for thee.
1815.