44
The jackall crept out with a stealthy tread,
To batten and feast on the noble dead;
The vulture bore down with a heavy wing
To dip his beak in life's stagnant spring.
To batten and feast on the noble dead;
The vulture bore down with a heavy wing
To dip his beak in life's stagnant spring.
The hyena heard the jackall's howl,
And he bounded forth with a sullen growl,
When Rizpah's shriek rose on the air
Like a tone from the caverns of despair.
And he bounded forth with a sullen growl,
When Rizpah's shriek rose on the air
Like a tone from the caverns of despair.
She sprang from her sad and lowly seat,
For a moment her heart forgot to beat,
And the blood rushed up to her marble cheek
And a flash to her eye so sad and meek.
For a moment her heart forgot to beat,
And the blood rushed up to her marble cheek
And a flash to her eye so sad and meek.
The vulture paused in his downward flight,
As she raised her form to its queenly height,
The hyena's eye had a horrid glare
As he turned again to his desert lair.
As she raised her form to its queenly height,
The hyena's eye had a horrid glare
As he turned again to his desert lair.
The jackall slunk back with a quickened tread,
From his cowardly search of Rizpah's dead;
Unsated he turned from the noble prey,
Subdued by a glance of the daughter of Ai.
From his cowardly search of Rizpah's dead;
Unsated he turned from the noble prey,
Subdued by a glance of the daughter of Ai.
Oh grief! that a mother's heart should know,
Such a weary weight of consuming wo,
For seldom if ever earth has known
Such love as the daughter of Aihath known.
Such a weary weight of consuming wo,
For seldom if ever earth has known
Such love as the daughter of Aihath known.
