Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
The Rock in El Ghor
By John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)D
Her stones of emptiness remain;
Around her sculptured mystery sweeps
The lonely waste of Edom’s plain.
The bow of vengeance turns not back;
Of all her myriads none are left
Along the Wady Mousa’s track.
Her arches spring, her statues climb;
Unchanged, the graven wonders pay
No tribute to the spoiler, Time!
Of power and glory undertrod,—
Of nations scattered like the chaff
Blown from the threshing-floor of God.
From Petra’s gates, with deeper awe,
To mark afar the burial urn
Of Aaron on the cliffs of Hor;
Thy Rock, El Ghor, is standing yet,—
Looks from its turrets desertward,
And keeps the watch that God has set.
It heard the voice of God to man,—
As when it saw in fire and cloud
The angels walk in Israel’s van!
It saw the long procession file,
And heard the Hebrew timbrels play
The music of the lordly Nile;
Cloud-bound, by Kadesh Barnea’s wells,
While Moses graved the sacred laws,
And Aaron swung his golden bells.
How grew its shadowing pile at length,
A symbol, in the Hebrew tongue,
Of God’s eternal love and strength.
From age to age went down the name,
Until the Shiloh’s promised year,
And Christ, the Rock of Ages, came!
Is strange as that the Hebrews trod;
We need the shadowing rock, as they,—
We need, like them, the guides of God.
To lead us o’er the desert sand!
God give our hearts their long desire,
His shadow in a weary land!