"The Destruction of Sennacherib" was published by Lord Byron in 1815 as part of the book Hebrew Melodies. The poem was written to be accompanied by music. The poem retells the biblical story of the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrian king Sennacherib, during which, according to the Bible, God destroyed the entire Assyrian army in the middle of the night. The poem is notable for its sympathetic portrayal of the Jewish people during a historical period that was rife with anti-Semitism.
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The Full Text of “The Destruction of Sennacherib”
1The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
2And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
3And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
4When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
5 Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
6That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
7Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
8That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
9 For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
10And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
11And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
12And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
13 And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
14But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
15And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
16And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
17 And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
18With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
19And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
20The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
21 And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
22And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
23And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
24Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
The Full Text of “The Destruction of Sennacherib”
1The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
2And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
3And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
4When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
5 Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
6That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
7Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
8That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
9 For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
10And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
11And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
12And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
13 And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
14But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
15And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
16And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
17 And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
18With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
19And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
20The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
21 And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
22And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
23And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
24Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
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“The Destruction of Sennacherib” Summary
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“The Destruction of Sennacherib” Themes
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God's Might
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Death
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Military Hubris
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Triumph of the Downtrodden
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Destruction of Sennacherib”
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Line 1
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
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Line 2
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
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Lines 3-4
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. -
Lines 5-8
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 withered and strown. -
Lines 9-12
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still! -
Lines 13-16
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled 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. -
Lines 17-20
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. -
Line 21
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
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Lines 22-24
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!
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“The Destruction of Sennacherib” Symbols
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The Angel of Death
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“The Destruction of Sennacherib” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Simile
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Anaphora
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Caesura
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Allusion
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Climax (Figure of Speech)
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End-Stopped Line
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Parallelism
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Synecdoche
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Metonymy
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Assonance
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Consonance
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Alliteration
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Personification
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“The Destruction of Sennacherib” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Assyrian
- Fold
- Cohorts
- Galilee
- Host
- Morrow
- Strown
- Blast
- Waxed
- Chill
- Steed
- Ashur
- Baal
- Gentile
- Unsmote
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Destruction of Sennacherib”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Destruction of Sennacherib” Speaker
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“The Destruction of Sennacherib” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Destruction of Sennacherib”
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More “The Destruction of Sennacherib” Resources
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External Resources
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Hebrew Melodies — More background information on "Hebrew Melodies," the collection in which the poem originally appeared, as well as selected photos of the music to which the poems were set.
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The Poem Out Loud — A reading of the poem on YouTube.
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Historical Background — Useful historical information on the siege of Jerusalem that inspired the biblical story this poem is based on.
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The Poem Set to Music — A choral adaptation of Byron's poem by the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky.
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A Biography of Byron — An extensive biography of Byron from Britannica.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Lord Byron
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