What mystic rapture dost thou own,Immutable and ultimate?What peace, unravished of our ken,Annihilate from the world of men?The wind of change for ever blowsAcross the tumult of our way,To-morrow’s unborn griefs deposeThe sorrows of our yesterday.Dream yields to dream, strife follows strife,And Death unweaves the webs of Life.For us the travail and the heat,The broken…
To tangled paths where shy gazelles are straying,And parrot-plumes outshine the dying day.O soft! the lotus-buds upon the streamAre stirring like sweet maidens when they dream.A caste-mark on the azure brows of Heaven,The golden moon burns sacred, solemn, brightThe winds are dancing in the forest-temple,And swooning at the holy feet of Night.Hush! in the silence…
Come, let us gather our nets from the shore and set our catamarans free,To capture the leaping wealth of the tide, for we are the kings of the sea!No longer delay, let us hasten away in the track of the sea gull’s call,The sea is our mother, the cloud is our brother, the waves are…
‘Is there ought you need that my hands withhold,Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold?Lo ! I have flung to the East and the WestPriceless treasures torn from my breast,And yielded the sons of my stricken wombTo the drum-beats of the duty, the sabers of doom…..’
Her girdles and her fillets gleamLike changing fires on sunset seas;Her raiment is like morning mist,Shot opal, gold and amethyst.From thieving light of eyes impure,From coveting sun or wind’s caress,Her days are guarded and secureBehind her carven lattices,Like jewels in a turbaned crest,Like secrets in a lover’s breast.But though no hand unsanctioned daresUnveil the mysteries…
Where lone, apart, old hermit-memories dwellIn consecrated calm, forgotten yetOf the keen heart that hastens to forgetOld longings in fulfilling new desires.And now the Soul stands in a vague, intenseExpectancy and anguish of suspense,On the dim chamber-threshold . . . lo! he seesLike a strange, fated bride as yet unknown,His timid future shrinking there alone,Beneath…
Blue as the wing of a halcyon wild,We weave the robes of a new-born child.Weavers, weaving at fall of night,Why do you weave a garment so bright? . . .Like the plumes of a peacock, purple and green,We weave the marriage-veils of a queen.Weavers, weaving solemn and still,What do you weave in the moonlight chill?…
Where the clustering keovas guard the squirrel’s slumber,Where the deep woods glimmer with the jasmine’s bloom?I’ll feed thee, O beloved, on milk and wild red honey,I’ll bear thee in a basket of rushes, green and white,To a palace-bower where golden-vested maidensThread with mellow laughter the petals of delight.Whither dost thou loiter, by what murmuring hollows,Where…
See the white river that flashes and scintillates,Curved like a tusk from the mouth of the city-gates.Hark, from the minaret, how the muezzin’s callFloats like a battle-flag over the city wall.From trellised balconies, languid and luminousFaces gleam, veiled in a splendour voluminous.Leisurely elephants wind through the winding lanes,Swinging their silver bells hung from their silver…
O wild and entrancing the strain of keen music that cleaveth the stars like a wail of desire,And beautiful dancers with houri-like faces bewitch the voluptuous watches of night.The scents of red roses and sandalwood flutter and die in the maze of their gem-tangled hair,And smiles are entwining like magical serpents the poppies of lips…
