WILD tumult bursting from the depths of hell,

Invades the sacred empire of the night:

Deep thunders mingle with the tyger’s yell,

And the torn heavens blaze forth sulphureous light.

 

Vast fragments from the high impending rock

O’erwhelm the lightning-rifted pines below;

The giant mountain scarce sustains the shock;

And as the winds with madd’ning fury blow,

 

Descend the clouds—the ten-fold torrents roar,

And round th’ OPPRESSOR’s dome dark spirits howl.

There was a time, when ACHMED thus could soar

’Mid the conflicting tempests of his soul;

 

Catch a congenial fury from the blast,

And bid it rise more dreadful o’er the earth,

’Till haughty TYRANTS, red with crimes, aghast,

Should execrate the day that gave them birth:

 

Should tear the gorgeous trappings of their pride:

Abjure the violence of lawless sway:

Hopeless of mercy they so oft denied,

And all their base dependants shrunk away:

 

Dash from their lips th’ untasted draught of death,

And hurl the dagger from their murd’rous hands,

Fly to lone glooms, there draw their lingering breath

Thro’ nights more num’rous than TEHAMA’s* sands:

 

Stung with remorse, o’erwhelm’d with guilty shame,

Conscious that millions execrate their name!