Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/223

REDEMPTION. . 217 Who, on the mount of terror, talk'd with God,

When, through Petraea's sterile wastes, he led

The stiff-neck' d tribes, and gave the law in vain,

To whom this Prophet, antitype of him,

Brings grace and truth, with mystic shades dispensed.

To Nairn first, the Glorified his steps

Directs, where he the dead to life restored;

Divergent thence, through Jezrael he pass'd,

A beauteous vale, luxiant in palms,

Profusely water'd by perennial founts;

Where Achab built his palaces and groves,

And after, met the vengeance just of heav'n.

Thence down by Bethsan, near that limpid bourn,

Which Jezrael empties in the hallow'd stream,

Springing a fount, near Telelradi's slope,

And with the Banias in the Houly flows,

Through flowery fields with graceful verdure spread,

And growth luxuriant of herbage wild;

Nor wanting sandy plains, with pinys deck'd,

With grateful interchange of flowers and ferns,

Of joyous sunshine, and refreshing shades.

Here, fenny banks, with osiers, bulrush, reeds,

With bending willows, in dense coverts grew;

There, beachen glades, inspersed the hills between,

With tamarisk and arbute, dotted o'er,

Whilst nodding oaks, on every hill top grew;

Alluvial meadows, here rich pastures yield,

Which bulls of Bethsan fatt'n, with favour'd kine,

And wanton fleecy flocks, and am'rous goats;

Manasses lot, rich heritage, possess'd

By Amrnon once, to Gilead outspread,

And Edom, laved by Jordan's swelling flood;