Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.

A Song of Moses and the Israelites

X. Michael Drayton

I WILL sing praise vnto the Lord for aie,

Who hath triumphed gloriously alone;

The horse and rider he hath ouerthrowen

And swallowed vp, euen in the raging sea.

He is my strength; he is my song of praise;

He is the God of my saluation:

A temple will I build to him alone—

I will exalt my fathers’ God alwaies.

The Lord Iehouah is a man of warre:

Pharoe, his chariots, and his mightie hoste

Were by his hand in the wilde waters lost,

His captaines drowned in Red Sea so farre.

Into the bottom there they sanke like stones,

The mightie depthes our enemies deuour:

Thy owne right hand is gloorious in thy power,

Thy owne right hand hath bruised all their bones.

And in thy glorie thou subuerted hast

The rebels rising to resist thy power;

Thou sentst thy wrath, which shall them all deuour,

Euen as the fire doth the stubble wast.

And with a blast out of thy nostrilles

The flowing flood stood still as any stone;

The waters were congealed all in one,

And firme and sure as any rockes or hilles.

The furious foe so vainly vaunteth stil,

And voweth to pursue with endlesse toile,

And not return till he haue got the spoile;

With fire and sword they wil destroy and kill.

Thou sentst the wind which ouerwhelm’d them all,

The surging seas came sousing in againe:

As in the water, so with might and maine,

Like lead, vnto the bottome downe they fall.

Oh, mightie Lord, who may with thee compare?

Amongst the gods I find none like to thee,

Whose glorie’s in holines, whose feares in praises be,

Whose chiefe delights in working woonders are.

Thou stretchest out thy right and holy arme,

And presently the earth did them deuour;

And thou wilt bring vs by thy mightie power,

As thou hast promist, without further harme.

And for thy people, Lord, thou shalt prouide

A place and seat of quietnesse and rest:

The nations all with feare shall be opprest,

And Palestina quake for all her pride.

The dukes of Edom shal hang downe the head;

The Moabites shall tremble then for feare;

The Cananites in presence shall appeare

Like vnto men whose fainting heartes were dead.

And feare and dread shall fall on them, alas!

Because thou helpest with thy mightie hand;

So stil as stones amazed they shal stand,

Oh mightie Lord, while thine elect doo passe.

And thou shalt bring thy chosen and elect

Unto the mount of thine inheritance,

A place prepared thy people to aduance:

A sanctuary there thou shalt erect;

Which thou, O Lord, establish’d hast therefore,

And there thy name shal raigne for euermore.