The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 2.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

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[248] Clear in the hot Arabian day
     Her arches spring, her statues climb;
Unchanged, the graven wonders pay
     No tribute to the spoiler, Time!

Unchanged the awful lithograph
     Of power and glory undertrod;
Of nations scattered like the chaff
     Blown from the threshing-floor of God.

Yet shall the thoughtful stranger turn
     From Petra's gates with deeper awe,
To mark afar the burial urn
     Of Aaron on the cliffs of Hor;

And where upon its ancient guard
     Thy Rock, El Ghor, is standing yet,—
Looks from its turrets desertward,
     And keeps the watch that God has set.

The same as when in thunders loud
     It heard the voice of God to man,
As when it saw in fire and cloud
     The angels walk in Israel's van!

Or when from Ezion-Geber's way
     It saw the long procession file,
And heard the Hebrew timbrels play
     The music of the lordly Nile;

Or saw the tabernacle pause,
     Cloud-bound, by Kadesh Barnea's wells,
While Moses graved the sacred laws,
     And Aaron swung his golden bells.