quote · Legacy record
Silently, swift as the lightning’s blast, A hand of fire across his temples passed; He ran, as in the terror of a dream, To quench his burning anguish in the stream; But, bending o’er the brink, the swelling wave Back to his eye the branded visage gave; As soon on murdered Abel durst he look: Yet power to fly his palsied limbs forsook; There turned to stone, for his presumptuous crime, A monument of wrath to latest time, Might Cain have stood; but mercy raised his head In prayer for help,—his strength returned, he fled.
Silently, swift as the lightning’s blast, A hand of fire across his temples passed; He ran, as in the terror of a dream, To quench his burning anguish in the stream; But, bending o’er the brink, the swelling wave Back to his eye the branded visage gave; As soon on murdered Abel durst he look: Yet power to fly his palsied limbs forsook; There turned to stone, for his presumptuous crime, A monument of wrath to latest time, Might Cain have stood; but mercy raised his head In prayer for help,—his strength returned, he fled.
Approximate author period: c. 1812 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- James Montgomery
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1812 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1771–1854)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- A Cyclopædia of Sacred Poetical Quotations (catalogued1888) (1888 AD)
Page 408 · printed citation: James Montgomery · subject: MURDER
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.