| The Destruction of Sennacherib | |
|---|---|
| byLord Byron | |
| First published in | Hebrew Melodies |
| Subject | Assyrian siege of Jerusalem |
| Rhyme scheme | Couplet |
| Publication date | 1815 |
| Lines | 24 |
| Metre | Anapestic tetrameter |
| Full text | |
 The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero)/Poetry/Volume 3/Hebrew Melodies/The Destruction of Sennacherib atWikisource | |
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay wither'd and strown.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd;
And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there roll'd not the breath of his pride:
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord![1]
"The Destruction of Sennacherib"[2] is a poem byLord Byron first published in 1815 in hisHebrew Melodies (in which it was titledThe Destruction of Semnacherib).[3] The poem is based on the biblical account of the historicalAssyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC byAssyrian kingSennacherib, as described in2 Kings 18–19,Isaiah 36–37. The rhythm of the poem has a feel of the beat of a galloping horse's hooves (ananapestic tetrameter) as the Assyrian rides into battle.[4]
The poem relates to the Biblical account of Sennacherib's attempted siege of Jerusalem. According to the Bible record in2 Kings 18:13, the Assyrian army came "against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them."When the Assyrians were besiegingJerusalem,Hezekiah prayed toJehovah in theTemple, andIsaiah sent the reply from Jehovah to Hezekiah: "I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake" (2 Kings 19:34), and during the following night theAngel of the Lord (מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה) "smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand" (i.e. 185,000), so by morning most of the Assyrian army was found "as dead corpses" (2 Kings 19:35), and Sennacherib went back to Nineveh. TheAssyrian annals do mention tribute paid by Hezekiah to Sennacherib (as recorded in 2 Kings 18), and theAssyrian Siege of Jerusalem (dated 701 BC), but omits any mention of its failure or the loss of the army.
The poem was popular in Victorian England and, when thefirst Australian cricket team to tour England defeated a strongMCC team, includingW. G. Grace, atLord's on 27 May 1878, the satirical magazinePunch celebrated by publishing a parody of the poem including a wry commentary on Grace's contribution:
Mark Twain has references to this poem throughout his works, from his early newspaper sketches toThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and it is mentioned often in biographies of him, making it clear that it was important to him.[6]
Ogden Nash's "Very Like a Whale", a humorous complaint about poetical metaphors, uses this poem for its inspiration:[7]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Ashton, Thomas L. (1972).Byron's Hebrew Melodies. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.ISBN 0710071736
