Iv

Dread Minister of wrath! Who to their destined punishment dost urge The Pharaohs of the earth, the men of hardened heart! Not unassisted by the flattering stars, Thou strew'st temptation o'er the path When they in pomp depart With trampling horses and refulgent cars-- Soon to be swallowed by the briny surge; Or cast, for lingering death, on unknown strands; Or caught amid a whirl of desert sands-- An Army now, and now a living hill That a brief while heaves with convulsive throes-- Then all is still;[EO] Or, to forget their madness and their woes, Wrapt in a winding-sheet of spotless snows!