To A Beautiful Jewish Girl of Altona. A Fragment

To A Beautiful Jewish Girl of Altona. A Fragment

Oh, Judith! had our lot been cast

In that remote and simple time

When, shepherd swains, thy fathers passed
From dreary wilds and deserts vast'

To Judah's happy clime, -

My song upon the mountain rocks,

Had echoed oft thy rural charms:

And I had fed thy father's flocks;
O Judith of the raven locks!

To win thee to my arms.

Our tent beside the murmur calm

Of Jordan's grassy-vested shore,

Had sought the shadow of the palm,
And blest with Gilead's holy balm

Our hospitable door.

At falling night, or ruby dawn,

Or yellow moonlight's welcome cool,

With health and gladness we had drawn,
From silver fountains on the lawn,

Our pitcher brimming full.

How sweet to us at sober hours

The bird of Salem would have sung,

In orange or in almond bowers, -
Fresh with the bloom of many flowers,

Like thee for ever young!

But ah, my love! thy father's land -

It sheds no more a spicy bloom,

Nor fills with fruit the reaper's hand;
But wide and silent wilds expand,

A desert and a tomb!

Yet by the good and golden hours

That dawned those rosy fields among, -

By Zion's palm encircled towers, -
By Salem's forsaken bowers,

And long forgotten song -

T. Campbell (Thomas Campbell)

1:31, p. 124

1827.10.12