title: Apostrophe of Rispah the concubine of Saul
author: Henry Livingston Jr.
date: 1794
source: Henry Livingston's manuscript poetry book (Thomas Collection; scans and transcription on henrylivingston.com); printed in New-York Weekly Museum, 19 Jul 1794. URL: https://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/rispah.htm (fetched via https://web.archive.org/web/20250522014141/https://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/rispah.htm)
form: iambic pentameter
lines: 20
attribution: certain
notes: Serious dramatic monologue (2 Samuel 21); site links it to the death of his daughter Cornelia, 28 Apr 1794. Title independently listed by Thomas 1919. Site heading/headnote: APOSTROPHE of RISPAH the concubine of Saul | when DAVID slew her sons | for Saul's crimes. MS scan: https://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/doublepages/doublepage56-57.htm

FROM morn to eve from eve to rosy morn
On this bleak rock I'll lay me all forlorn;
Here will I stay tho' tempests howl around
Fierce lightnings glare or earthquakes rock the ground.
The prowling wolves - the hungry birds of prey
Pierc'd with my moans will rove another way:
Less steel'd than man, with hearts dissolv'd they go
And lose their nature at the voice of woe.

And did ye O my hapless offspring! bleed
For your unhappy Father's thoughtless deed?
He fell alas on Gilboa's fatal plain
And gave his life 'mong thousands nobly slain.
--He had his faults; but he was kind and brave,
And with him all his errors found a grave:
-- Thus fondly I - With cursed, deadly hate
Against his house is hurl'd the bolts of state;
For royal David wrapt in purple-grieves
While one of Saul's unfort'nate lineage lives:
His word is fate -- Myself, my children, all
Must in an undistinguish'd ruin fall.