Five-minute digest
The Destruction of Sennacherib
Summary
The Destruction of Sennacherib is a short narrative poem in six quatrains that Byron wrote at Seaham in February 1815 and published in Hebrew Melodies the same year. It retells the biblical story, found in 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37, of the Assyrian king Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem in the days of King Hezekiah about 701 BC, when the angel of the Lord struck down the Assyrian army in a single night. The famous first line, The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, sets the scene: an enormous army, glittering in purple and gold, sweeps down on Israel like a predator on a sheepfold, its spears shining like stars on the Sea of Galilee. The second stanza uses a double simile of forest leaves: green and thick at sunset, withered and scattered by morning. The third tells how the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast and breathed on the sleeping soldiers, whose hearts heaved once and were still. The fourth and fifth stanzas show the aftermath in vivid detail: the horse with flared nostrils and cold foam, the rider pale with dew on his brow and rust on his armour, the silent tents and unblown trumpets. The last stanza turns to the consequences: the widows of Ashur wail, the idols are broken in the temple of Baal, and the might of the Gentile, never touched by a sword, has melted like snow in the glance of the Lord. The poem is famous for its rhythm, a galloping anapestic tetrameter that imitates the charge of cavalry, and for the dramatic contrast between the army's pride and its sudden end. Byron, who was not a pious man, nevertheless tells the story wholly from the biblical point of view: God, not human arms, delivers his people.
Top Lessons
God's deliverance
The army is destroyed unsmote by the sword. The poem, like the Bible, gives the victory to God.
Pride before a fall
The splendid army of the first stanza becomes the silent camp of the fifth.
Sound and sense
The rushing anapests sound like galloping horses, then the final stanzas slow into stillness.
Verified Quotes
Frequently cited
“The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold”
“For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast”
Frequently cited
“Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord”