When that cup, which for others the proud Golden City[4]
Had brimmed full of bitterness, drenched her own lips;
And the world she had trampled on heard, without pity,
The howl in her halls, and the cry from her ships.
When the curse Heaven keeps for the haughty came over
Her merchants rapacious, her rulers unjust,
And, a ruin, at last, for the earthworm to cover,[5]
The Lady of Kingdoms[6] lay low in the dust.
[1] These verses were written after the perusal of a treatise by Mr.
Hamilton, professing to prove that the Irish were originally Jews.
[2] 1 "Her sun is gone down while it was yet day."--_Jer_. xv. 9.
[3] "Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken."--_Isaiah_, lxii. 4.
[4] "How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!"--
_Isaiah_, xiv. 4.
[5] "Thy pomp is brought down to the grave . . . and the worms cover
thee."--_Isaiah_, xiv. 11.
[6] "Thou shalt no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms."--_Isaiah_,
xlvil. 5.
DRINK OF THIS CUP.
Drink of this cup;--you'll find there's a spell in
Its every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality;
Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen!
Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality.
Would you forget the dark world we are in,
Just taste of the bubble that gleams on the top of it;
But would you rise above earth, till akin
To Immortals themselves, you must drain every drop of it;
Send round the cup--for oh there's a spell in
Its every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality;
Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen!
Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality.
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