Mighty of old! interpreter of dreams!
Stern, mystic, awful, as his sacred themes!
We pause, and doubt his very bones can rest
Beneath this heathy turf, the wild-bird's nest;
Yet here stood Susa — there those waters roll,
Where heaven-born visions burst on Daniel's soul;
Yes, he, the favoured of Chaldaea's kings,
Who swept the future's depths on prophet- wings,
Hath oft, perchance, roamed here in thought sublime,
Mused by these murmuring waves, unchanged by time,
At night's deep hour yon lonely mountains trod,
Mourned for his captive race, and called on God.
Author's Note: The small ruinous building which native Persians as well as foreign travellers agree in calling the tomb of the Prophet Daniel, or at least in supposing that it stands over the place where his bones were interred, is situated at the foot of the great mound. That Daniel died and was buried at Susa, the scene of his prophetic visions, we are led by Jewish tradition to believe; but when, Or by whom, the tomb was erected, we have no means of ascertaining. Colonel Macdonald, during his travels in this desolate region, passed a whole night in the sepulchre.