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-                             AKRA THE SLAVE
-
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-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
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-Title: Akra the Slave
-Author: Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
-Release Date: February 08, 2013 [EBook #42051]
-Language: English
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AKRA THE SLAVE ***
-
-
-
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42051 ***
 
 Produced by Al Haines.
 
@@ -1246,377 +1224,4 @@ Lo! ... in the East, the dawn.
 
           LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED.
 
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42051 ***
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-                             AKRA THE SLAVE
-
-
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
-no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-
-
-Title: Akra the Slave
-Author: Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
-Release Date: February 08, 2013 [EBook #42051]
-Language: English
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AKRA THE SLAVE ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Al Haines.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: Cover]
-
-
-
-
-                             AKRA THE SLAVE
-
-
-                                   BY
-                         WILFRID WILSON GIBSON
-
-
-
-                                 LONDON
-                       ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET
-                                  MCMX
-
-
-
-
-_Six years ago, I wrote this story down,_
-_While yet the light of Eastern skies_
-_Was in my eyes,_
-_And still my heart, aglow with memories_
-_Of sun-enraptured seas,_
-_And that old sea-girt town._
-_Where, down dark alleys of enchanted night,_
-_We stole, until we came_
-_To where the great dome glimmered white._
-_And every minaret,_
-_A shaft of pearly flame,_
-_Beneath the cloudy moon..._
-
-_Six years ago!_
-_Ah! soon--too soon,_
-_Our tale, too, will be told:_
-_And yet, and yet,_
-_From this old Eastern tale we know,_
-_Love's story never can grow old,_
-_Till Love, himself, forget._
-
-
-
-
-                             AKRA THE SLAVE
-
-
-He thought to see me tremble
-And totter as an oar-snapt reed,
-When he spake death to me--
-My courage, toppled in the dust,
-Even as the head of cactus
-The camel-keeper slashes
-That his beasts may browse, unscathed,
-The succulent, wounded green.
-He thought to have me, broken,
-And grovelling at his feet;
-Mouthing and mumbling to his sandal-ties,
-In stammering dread of death--
-Aye! even as a king,
-Who, having from death's hand,
-Received his crown and kingdom,
-For ever treads in terror of the hour
-When death shall jog his elbow,
-Twitch the purple from his shoulders,
-And claim again the borrowed crown.
-But, little need have I to fear
-The crouching, lean camp-follower,
-Unto whose ever-gaping maw,
-Day after day, I flung
-The spoils of bow and arrow,
-Ere I was taken captive--
-I, who have often, at my mother's breast,
-Awakened in the night-time,
-To see death leering on me from the cave-mouth,
-A gaunt and slinking shape
-That snuffed the dying embers,
-Blotting out the friendly stars--
-I, who, a scarce-weaned boy,
-Have toddled, gay and fearless,
-Down the narrow jungle-track,
-Through bodeful forest-darkness, panther-eyed;
-And have felt cold snakes uncoiling
-And gliding 'neath my naked sole,
-From clammy slumber startled;
-While, with sharp snap and crackle,
-Beast-trodden branches strained behind me,
-My father's hand scarce snatching me
-Before the spring of crouching death!
-But, naught of this the King could know,
-He only knew that, on that far-off morning,
-When first I came before him, captive,
-Among my captive brothers,
-And, as he lightly held, in idle fingers,
-Above my unbowed head,
-In equal poise
-Death's freedom
-Or the servitude of life,
-I clutched at life:
-And cared but little that his lips
-Should curl, to see me, broken,
-A slave among his slaves.
-Yet, never slave of his was I;
-Nor did I take my new life from his nod--
-I ... I who could have torn
-The proud life out of him,
-Before his guards could stay me...
-Had she not sat beside him, on her throne.
-
-And he, who knew not then,
-Nor ever, till to-day,
-Has known me aught but slave,
-Remembering that time,
-Spake doom of death to me,
-Idly, as to a slave:
-And I await the end of night,
-And dawn of death,
-Even as a slave awaits...
-Nay! as the unvanquished veteran
-Awaits the hour of victory.
-
-In silence, wheels the night,
-Star-marshalled, over dreaming Babylon;
-And none in all the sleeping city stirs,
-Save the cloaked sentries on the outer walls
-Who tread out patience 'twixt the gates of brass,
-Numb with scarce-baffled slumber,
-Or, maybe, some unsleeping priest of Bel,
-A lonely warder of eternity,
-Who watches on the temple's seventh stage,
-With the unslumbering gods.
-Yet, may not she, the Queen,
-Whose beauty, slaying my body,
-Brings my soul to immortal birth,
-Although she does not know
-Of my last vigil on the peak of life--
-Yet, may not she awaken, troubled
-By strange, bewildering dreams,
-With heart a little fearful of the dawn
-Of day, yet unrevealed?
-
-There is no sound at all,
-Save only the cool plashing
-Of fountains in the courtyard
-Without my lonely cell:
-For fate has granted to me
-This last, least consolation of sweet sound
-Though in the plains I perish,
-I shall hear the noise of waters,
-The noise of running waters,
-As I die.
-My earliest lullaby shall sing
-My heart again to slumber.
-And, even now, I hear
-Stream-voices, long-forgotten, calling me
-Back to the hills of home;
-And, dreaming, I remember
-The little yellow brooks
-That ever, day and night,
-Gush down the mountains singing,
-Singing by the caves:
-And hearkening unto them,
-Once more a tiny baby,
-A wee brown fist I dabble
-In the foaming cool,
-Frothing round my wrist,
-Spurting up my arm,
-Spraying my warm face;
-And then again I chuckle,
-As I see an empty gourd,
-Fallen in the swirling waters,
-Bobbing on the tawny eddies,
-Swiftly out of sight.
-
-And yet most clearly to remembrance comes
-That far-off night, in early Spring,
-When, loud with melted snow from Northern peaks,
-The torrent roared and fretted;
-While, couched within the cavern,
-The clamour kept me wakeful;
-And, even when I slept,
-Tumbled, tumultuous, through my dreams,
-And seemed to surge about me,
-As the brawl of arm�d men.
-And once I sprang from slumber,
-Hot and startled,
-Dreaming that I felt
-A warm breath on my cheek,
-As if a jackal nuzzled me;
-Or some dread, slinking foe
-Made certain of my sleeping
-Before he plunged the steel.
-But nothing stirred within the glimmering cavern,
-Where, all around me, lay my sleeping kindred;
-And, when I stole without, with noiseless footsteps,
-To rouse the smouldering watchfire into flame,
-And cast fresh, crackling brushwood on the blaze,
-I caught no glint of arms betwixt the branches,
-Nor any sound or rumour, save
-The choral noise of cold hill-waters,
-Cold hill-waters singing,
-Singing to the stars.
-And so I turned me from the brooding night;
-And, couched again upon the leopard-skins,
-I slept, till dawn, in dream-untroubled sleep.
-
-I woke to see the cold sky kindling red,
-Beyond the mounded ash of the spent fire;
-And lay, a moment, watching
-The pearly light, caught, trembling,
-In dewy-beaded spiders' webs
-About the cave-mouth woven.
-Then I arose;
-And left my kindred, slumbering--
-My mother, by my father,
-And, at her breast, her youngest babe,
-With dimpled fingers clutching at her bosom;
-And, all around them, lying
-Their sons and daughters, beautiful in sleep,
-With parted lips,
-And easy limbs outstretched
-Along the tumbled bedskins:
-And while they slumbered yet in shades of night,
-I sprang out naked
-Into eager dawn.
-The sun had not yet scaled the eastern ridge:
-And still the vales were hidden from my eyes
-By snowy wreaths of swathing mist:
-But, high upon a scar
-That jutted sheer and stark,
-In cold grey light,
-There stood an antelope,
-With lifted muzzle snuffing the fresh day;
-When scenting me afar,
-He plunged into the mist
-With one quick, startled bound:
-And, from the smoking vapour,
-Arose a gentle pattering,
-As, down the rocky trail,
-The unseen herd went trotting
-Upon their leader's heels.
-And from the clear horizon
-The exultant sun sprang god-like:
-And on a little mound I stood,
-With eager arms outstretched,
-That, over my cold body,
-The first warm golden beams
-Of his life-giving light might fall.
-And thus, awhile, I stood.
-In radiant adoration tranced,
-Until I caught the call of waters;
-And, running downwards to the stream,
-That plunged into a darkling pool,
-Where, in the rock was scooped a wide, deep basin;
-Upon the glassy brink,
-A moment, I hung, shivering,
-And gazing down through deeps of lucent shadow;
-And then I leapt headlong,
-And felt the cloven waters
-Closing, icy-cold, above me,
-And, again, with sobbing breath,
-Battled to the light and air:
-And I ran into the sunshine,
-Shaking from my tingling limbs
-Showers of scintillating drops
-Over radiant, dewy beds
-Of the snowy cyclamen,
-And dark-red anemone,
-Till my tawny body glowed
-With warm, ruddy, pulsing life.
-And then again I sought the stream,
-And plunged; and now, more boldly,
-I crossed the pool, with easy stroke;
-And climbed the further crag;
-And, turning, plunged again.
-And so, I dived and swam,
-Till pangs of hunger pricked
-My idle fancy homeward:
-And eagerly I climbed the hill;
-When, not a sling's throw from the cavern,
-Stooping to pluck a red anemone,
-To prank the wet, black tangle of my hair,
-I heard a shout;
-And looking up,
-I saw strange men
-With lifted spears
-Bear down on me:
-And as I turned,
-A javelin sang
-Above my shrinking shoulder,
-And bit the ground before me.
-But, swift as light I sped,
-Until I reached the pool,
-And leapt therein:
-And he who pressed most hotly on my heels,
-Fell stumbling after.
-Still I never slackened,
-Although I heard a floundering splash,
-And then the laughter of his comrades:
-And, as I swam for life,
-Betwixt my thrusting heels,
-Another spear that clove the crystal waters
-Glanced underneath my body,
-And in the stream-bed quivered bolt upright,
-Caught in a cleft of rock.
-With frantic arm I struck
-Straight as a snake across the pool,
-And climbed the further bank;
-And plunging through deep brake,
-Ran wildly onward,
-Startling as I went
-A browsing herd of antelope,
-That, bounding, fled before me down the valley
-And after them I raced,
-As though the hunter,
-Not the hunted,
-Until the chase sang in my blood,
-And braced my straining thews.
-I knew not if men followed,
-Yet, on I sped, impetuously,
-As speeds the fleet-foot onaga,
-That breasts the windy morning,
-With lifted head, and nostrils wide,
-Exultant in his youth.
-So, on and ever on,
-Scarce knowing why I ran--
-Enough for me to feel
-Earth beaten back behind my heels,
-And hear the loud air singing
-The blood-song in my ears:
-Till, stumbling headlong over
-An unseen, fallen branch,
-I rolled in a deep bed of withered leaves;
-And lay, full-length in shuddering ecstasy
-Of hot, tumultuous blood that rioted
-Through every throbbing vein.
-But when again, I breathed more easily,
-And my wild, fluttering heart kept slower beat,
-Hot-foot, my thoughts ran, wondering, backward:
-And I arose and followed them
-With swift and stealthy pace,
-Until I reached the stream.
-Along the bank I stole with wary step,
-Until I came to where the waters
-Narrowed, raging through a gorge,
-Nigh the threshold of my home:
-And across the thunderous flood,
-From crag to crag I leapt:
-And then I climbed a cedar,
-From whose close ambush I could watch
-Who came or went about the cavern-mouth.
-I lay along a level branch:
-And, through the thick, dark screen,
-I peered with eager eyes:
-But no one crossed my sight.
-The whole land lay before me, drowsing
-In deepest noonday slumber:
-No twig stirred in the breathless blaze;
-And underneath the boughs no serpent rustled:
-And, in the earth and air,
-Naught waked, save one lone eagle, nigh the sun,
-With wings, unbaffled, beating
-Up the blue, unclouded heavens.
-A dreamless, suave security
-Seemed brooding o'er the valley's golden slumber,
-Whence rang or flashed no hint of lurking peril.
-I dropped to earth,
-And crouching low,
-I stole yet nearer
-Through the brake:
-Till, drawing nigh the cavern-mouth,
-I heard the sound of half-hushed sobbing:
-And then I saw, within the gloom,
-My mother and my sisters clustering round
-My father's body, lying stark and dead,
-A spear-wound in his breast.
-And as I crept to them, they did not hear me,
-Nor ever lift their heads;
-But, shuddering, crouched together,
-With drooping breasts half-hid in falling hair,
-By that familiar form
-In such strange slumber bound.
-Only the baby, on her shoulder slung,
-Saw me, and crowed me greeting,
-As I stooped down to touch my weeping mother,
-Who, turning suddenly,
-With wild tear-fevered eyes;
-Arose with whispered warning;
-But, even then, too late.
-Already, from behind,
-Around my throat
-An arm was flung;
-And heavily I fell:
-Yet, with a desperate wrench,
-I slipped the clutch of my assailant:
-And picking up a slingstone that lay handy,
-I crashed it through his helm;
-And dead he dropped.
-And now upon me all his fellows thronged,
-Like hounds about an antelope;
-And gripped my naked limbs,
-And dragged me down,
-A struggling beast, among them:
-And desperately I fought,
-As fights the boar at bay,
-When all the yelling pack,
-With lathered lips, and white teeth gnashing,
-Is closing in upon him;
-And in his quivering flank, and gasping throat,
-He feels the fangs of death:
-Till, overcome at last,
-They bound me hand and foot,
-With knotted, leathern thongs;
-And dragged me out to where, beneath the trees,
-Trussed in like manner, with defiant eyes,
-My brothers lay, already, side by side.
-They laid me in the shade;
-And flicked my wincing spirit
-With laughter and light words:
-"Now is the roe-buck taken!"
-Then another,
-On whose dark, sullen face there burned a livid weal
-"A buck in flight's a panther brought to bay!"
-And then his fellow:
-"True enough! and yet,
-For such young thews they give good gold--
-They give good gold in Babylon!"
-And, laughing thus, they left us,
-To lie through hours of aching silence,
-Until, at length, the cool of evening fell;
-When they returned from slumber;
-And loosed the ankle-cords that we might stand;
-And bade our mother feed us;
-And she, with tender fingers, held
-The milk-bowl to our parching lips;
-And thrust dried dates betwixt our teeth;
-And wept, to see us standing there,
-With helpless hands, before her.
-Then, bringing out their mules, they saddled them;
-And tied us to the girths on either hand.
-They drove my weeping sisters from the cavern;
-And sought to tear my mother from her home;
-But she escaped them;
-And they let her bide
-Amid the ruins of her life,
-Whose light had dropped, so suddenly,
-From out the highest heavens:
-And, when I turned to look on her,
-And win from her a last farewell,
-I saw her, sitting desolate betwixt
-Her silent husband and her wailing babe,
-With still, strange eyes,
-That stared upon the dead, unseeing,
-While her own children went from her,
-Scarce knowing that they left her, nevermore
-To look upon her face.
-
-Thus, we set out, as over
-The darkening, Southern crags
-The new moon's keen, curved blade was thrust:
-My sisters trooping on before us,
-Like a drove of young gazelles,
-Which, in the dead of night,
-With pards in leash, and torches flaring,
-The hunters have encompassed.
-They moved with timid steps,
-And little runs;
-Stumbling, with stifled cries;
-And starting, panic-shot,
-From every lurking shadow--
-Behind them, terror's lifted lash:
-Before them, ever crouching,
-The horror of the unknown night--
-While, as they moved before us,
-The moonlight shivered off their shrinking shoulders
-And naked, glancing limbs,
-In shimmering, strange beauty.
-And closely on their heels,
-I, with my brothers, foremost in the file,
-Marched, tethered 'twixt the plodding beasts,
-Whose stolid riders sat,
-Each with his javelin on the pummel couched,
-In watchful silence, with dark eyes alert.
-And once, nigh driven crazy
-By the tugging of the thongs,
-I sprang into the air,
-As down a rocky steep we scrambled;
-And strove to burst the galling bonds,
-Or hurl my guards on one another;
-But, all too sure of foot, the beasts,
-And too securely girths and cords
-Held me, and I stumbled.
-Instantly a thong
-Struck my wincing shoulders,
-Blow on thudding blow.
-I bit my lips; and strode on silently;
-Nor fought again for freedom.
-So on we journeyed through the night,
-And down familiar mountain-tracks,
-Through deep, dark forest,
-Ever down and down;
-Fording the streams, whose moon-bright waters flowed,
-In eddies of delicious, aching cool,
-About our weary thighs.
-And, once, when in mid-torrent,
-That swirled, girth-high about the plunging beasts,
-A startled otter, glancing
-Before their very hoofs,
-Affrighted them; and, rearing,
-With blind and desperate floundering,
-They nearly dragged us down to death:
-And, ere we righted,
-With a fearful cry,
-My eldest sister from the bevy broke;
-And struck down-stream
-With wild arm lashing desperately,
-Until the current caught her;
-And she sank, to rise no more.
-And on again we travelled,
-Down through the darkling woodlands:
-And once I saw green, burning eyes,
-Where, on a low-hung bough,
-A night-black panther crouched,
-As though to pounce upon my sisters;
-But, the sudden crack of whips,
-Startling him, he snarled;
-And turned with lashing tail,
-Crashing through dense brushwood.
-
-When, once, again we came unto a clearing,
-The night was near its noon:
-And all the vales that lay before us
-Were filled with moving, moonlit mists,
-That seemed phantasmal waters
-Of that enchanted world,
-Where we, in dreams, sail over still lagoons,
-Throughout eternal night,
-And under unknown stars.
-Still, on we fared, unresting,
-Until the low moon paled;
-When, halting on a mountain-spur,
-We first looked down on Babylon,
-Far in the dreaming West,
-A cluster of dim towers,
-Scarce visible to wearied eyes.
-We camped within a sheltering cedar-grove;
-And all the day, beneath the level boughs,
-Upon the agelong-bedded needles lay,
-Half-slumbering, with fleeting, fretful dreams
-That could not quite forget the chafing cords,
-That held our arms in aching numbness:
-But, ere the noon, in sounder sleep I sank,
-Dreaming I floated on a still, deep pool,
-Beneath dark, overhanging branches;
-And seemed to feel upon my cheek
-The cool caress of waters;
-While, far above me, through the night of trees,
-Noon glimmered faintly as the glint of stars.
-As thus I lay, in indolent ecstasy,
-O'er me, suddenly, the waters
-Curved, and I was dragged,
-Down and down,
-Through gurgling deeps
-Of swirling, drowning darkness...
-When I awoke in terror;
-And strove to sit upright;
-But, tautly, with a jerk,
-The thongs that held me to my brothers,
-Dragged me back to earth.
-
-Awhile I lay, with staring eyes, awake,
-Watching a big, grey spider, crouched overhead,
-In ambush 'neath a twig, beside her web,
-Oft sallying out, to bind yet more securely,
-The half-entangled flies.
-And then, once more, I slumbered;
-And dreamed a face leant over me,
-More fair than any face
-My waking eyes had ever looked upon.
-Its beauty burned above me,
-Not dusky like my sisters' faces,
-But pale as the wan moon,
-Reflected in a flood
-Of darkly flowing waters,
-Or as the creaming froth,
-That, born amid the thunder of the fall,
-Floats on the river's bosom in the sunshine,
-Bubble after bubble,
-Perishing in air.
-So, a moment, over me,
-With frail and fleeting glimmer
-Of strange elusive, evanescent light,
-The holy vision hovered.
-And yet, whenever, with a fervent longing,
-I sought to look into the darkling eyes,
-The face would fade from me,
-As foam caught in an eddy:
-Until, at last, I wakened,
-And, wondering, saw a pale star gleaming
-Betwixt the cedar-branches.
-And soon our captors stirred:
-And we arose, to see
-The walls and towers of Babylon, dark
-Against the clear rose of the afterglow,
-Already in the surge of shadows caught,
-As night, beneath us, slowly Westward swept,
-Flooding the dreaming plain that lay before us,
-Vast, limitless, bewildering,
-And strange to mountain-eyes.
-As down the slope we went,
-And when, at last, we left behind
-The hills and singing waters,
-A vague, oppressive fear
-Of those dim, silent leagues of level land,
-Fell on me; and I almost seemed
-To bear upon my shoulders
-The vaster dome of overwhelming night;
-And, trembling like a child,
-I looked askance at my two captors,
-As they rode on in heedless silence,
-Their swarthy faces sharp
-Against the lucent sky.
-And then, once more,
-The old, familiar watchfires of the stars
-Brought courage to my bosom;
-And the young moon's brilliant horn
-Was exalted in the sky:
-And soon, the glooming wilderness
-Awoke with glittering waters,
-As a friendly wind sang unto me
-Among the swaying reeds:
-While, cloud on cloud,
-The snowy flocks of pelican
-Before our coming rose;
-And, as they swerved to Southward,
-The moonlight shivered off their flashing pinions.
-
-So, on we marched, till dawn, across the plain;
-And, on and on,
-Beneath the waxing moon,
-Each night we travelled Westward;
-Until, at last, we halted
-By the broad dull-gleaming flood
-Of mighty, roaring Tigris;
-And aroused from midnight slumber
-The surly, grumbling ferrymen,
-And crossed the swollen waters
-Upon the great, skin rafts:
-Then on again we fared,
-Until the far, dim towers soared in the dawnlight
-And we encamped beside a stream,
-Beneath dry, rustling palms.
-And heavily I slumbered:
-And only wakened once, at noon,
-When, lifting up my head,
-I saw the towers of Babylon, burning blue,
-Far off, in the blind heat:
-And slept again, till sunset,
-When we took our Westward course
-Along the low bank of a broad canal,
-That glimmered wanly 'neath a moonless sky.
-Higher, and higher still,
-As we drew slowly nearer,
-Arose the vasty walls and serried towers,
-That seemed to thrust among the stars,
-And on embattled summits bear the night,
-Unbowed beneath their burden,
-As easily as, with unruffled brows,
-And limber, upright bodies,
-The village-daughters carry
-At eve the brimming pitchers,
-Poised upon their heads.
-And when, above us, the wide-looming walls
-Shut out the Western stars;
-Beneath their shade, at midnight, we encamped,
-To await till dawn should open
-The city gates for us.
-That night we did not sleep,
-But, crouched upon the ground,
-We watched the moon rise over Babylon,
-Till, far behind us, o'er the glittering waste,
-Was flung the wall's huge shadow,
-And the moving shades of sentries,
-Who, unseen above our heads,
-Paced through the night incessantly.
-Thus long we sat, hushed with awed expectation,
-And gazing o'er the plain that we had travelled,
-As, gradually, the climbing moon,
-Escaping from the clustering towers,
-Revealed far-gleaming waters,
-And the sharp, shrill cry of owls,
-Sweeping by on noiseless plumes,
-Assailed the vasty silence,
-Shivering off like darts
-From some impenetrable shield.
-And, as we waited,
-Sometimes, fearfully,
-I gazed up those stupendous, soaring walls
-Of that great, slumbering city, wondering
-What doom behind the bastioned ramparts slept,
-What destiny, beneath the brooding night,
-Awaited me beyond the brazen gates.
-But, naught the blind, indifferent stars revealed,
-Though towards the long night's ending,
-Half-dazed with gazing up that aching height,
-A drowsiness fell over me,
-And in a restless waking-trance I lay,
-Dreaming that Life and Death before me stood.
-And, as each thrust towards me a shrouded cup,
-Implacable silence bade me choose and drink.
-But, as I stretched a blind, uncertain hand
-To take the cup of death,
-I wakened, and dawn trembled,
-At last, beyond the Eastern hills,
-And, star by star, night failed;
-And eagerly the sun leapt up the sky,
-And, as his flashing rays
-Smote kindling towers and flaming gates of brass,
-Across the reedy moat
-A clattering drawbridge fell,
-And wide the glittering portals slowly swung:
-And there came streaming out in slow procession
-A sleepy caravan of slouching camels,
-Groaning and grumbling as they strode along
-Beneath their mountainous burdens,
-Upon whose swaying summits,
-Impassively, the blue-robed merchants sat.
-They passed us slowly by,
-And then we took the bridge,
-And, while our captors parleyed with the guards,
-Who stood, on either hand,
-With naked swords,
-I turned my head,
-And saw for the last time, far Eastward,
-The cold, snow-brilliant peaks,
-Beyond my dim, blue, native hills.
-And, as I looked, my thoughts flew homeward,
-And I, one dreaming moment,
-Stood by my mourning mother in the cavern
-Of desolation, looking on the dead.
-And then, between the brazen gate-posts,
-And underneath the brazen lintel,
-At last we entered Babylon.
-Before us, yet another wall arose,
-And, turning sharply
-Down a narrow way,
-The living breath of heaven seemed shut from us
-As though beneath the beetling crags
-Of some deep mountain-gorge--
-By cliffs of wall, on either hand,
-That soared up to the narrow sky,
-Which with dim lustre lit
-The shimmering surface of enamelled brick,
-Whereon, through giant groves,
-Blue-coated hunters chased the boar,
-Or 'loosed red-tasselled falcon
-After flying crane.
-But soon we reached another gate,
-Sword-guarded, and we entered,
-And plunged into the traffic
-Of clamorous merchantmen,
-Speeding their business ere the heat of day.
-And as we jostled, slowly,
-Through bewildering bazaars,
-The porters and the idler wayfarers
-All turned to look upon our shame,
-With cold, unpitying eyes,
-And indolent, gaping mouths,
-Or jested with our captors,
-Until we left the busier thoroughfares,
-And walked through groves of cypress and of ilex,
-Where not a sound or rumour troubled
-The silence of the dark-plumed boughs
-And glimmering deeps of peace,
-Save only the cool spurt of waters
-That, from a myriad unseen jets,
-Fretted the crystal airs of morning,
-And fell in frolic showers
-Of twinkling, rainbow drops,
-That plashed in unseen basins;
-And through the blaze of almond-orchards,
-Tremulous with blossom
-That flickered in a rosy, silken snow
-Of falling petals over us,
-And wreathed about our feet
-In soft and scented drifts;
-Beneath pomegranate trees in young, green leaf,
-And through vast gardens, glowing with strange flowers,
-Such as no April kindled into bloom
-Among the valleys of my native hills.
-We came unto a court of many fountains,
-Where, leaping off their jaded mules,
-Our captors loosed the thongs that held us,
-But left our wrists still bound.
-And one with great clay pitchers came,
-And over our hot bodies, travel-stained,
-Poured out cool, cleansing waters
-In a gurgling, crystal stream,
-And flung coarse robes of indigo
-About our naked shoulders.
-And here we left behind us
-The maidens and the younger boys,
-And passing through a gateway,
-Came out upon a busy wharf,
-Where, southward, midway through the city,
-The broad Euphrates flows,
-His dark flood thronged with merchant-dhows,
-And fishing-boats of reed and bitumen,
-Piled high with glistering barbel, freshly-caught;
-And foreign craft, with many-coloured sails,
-And laden deep with precious merchandise,
-That, over wide, bewildering waters,
-Across the perilous world,
-The adventurous, dark-bearded mariners,
-Who swear by unknown gods in alien tongues,
-Bring ever to the gates of Babylon.
-We crossed the drawbridge, round whose granite piers
-Swirled strong, Spring-swollen waters,
-Loud and tawny,
-And, through great brazen portals,
-Passed within the palace gates,
-When first I saw afar the hanging-gardens,
-Arch on arch,
-And tier on tier,
-Against a glowing sky.
-Two strapping Nubians, like young giants
-Hewn from blue-black marble
-By some immortal hand in immemorial ages,
-Led us slowly onward.
-The dappled pard-skins, slung across their shoulders,
-Scarcely hid the ox-like thews,
-Beneath the dark skin rippling,
-As they strode along before us.
-Through courts of alabaster,
-And painted corridors,
-
-And chambers fair with flowery tapestries
-They led us, wondering, till at last we came
-Into a vast, dim hall of glimmering gold,
-The end of all our journeying.
-And, as we halted on the threshold,
-My eyes could see but little for a moment,
-In the dusky, heavy air,
-Through the ceaseless cloud of incense,
-Rising from the smouldering braziers
-To the gold, grey-clouded dome,
-Tingling strangely in my nostrils,
-As I came from morning airs;
-Then slowly filling them with drowsy fume,
-When, looking up with half-dazed eyes,
-I saw the King upon his golden throne:
-And through my body
-Raged rebellious blood,
-In baffled riot beating
-At my corded wrists,
-As if to burst the galling bonds,
-That I might hurl that lean, swart face,
-So idly turning towards us,
-With thin curled lips,
-And cold, incurious eyes,
-To headlong death--
-Yea! even though I tumbled
-The towers of Babylon round about my head.
-And, when our captors bowed their foreheads low,
-Obsequious to the throne,
-I stood upright,
-And gazed my loathing on that listless form--
-The gay, embroidered robe,
-The golden cap, that prankt the crisp�d locks,
-The short, square beard, new-oiled and barbered--
-But, in a flash,
-A heavy blow
-Fell on my head,
-And struck me to my knees
-Before the sleek, indifferent king.
-And then, on either hand,
-With gripping palms upon my shoulders set,
-The Nubians towered above me
-Like mighty men of stone.
-And savagely I struggled,
-Half-stunned, to rise again;
-When, as I vainly battled
-In their unrelenting clutch,
-My eyes lit for the first time on the Queen,
-Who sat upon the da�s, by her lord
-Half-shadowed, on a throne of ivory,
-And all the hate died in me, as I saw
-The face that hovered over me in dream,
-When I had slept beneath the low-boughed cedar:
-The moon-pale brows, o'er which the clustered hair
-Hung like the smoke of torches, ruddy-gold,
-Against a canopy of peacock plumes:
-The deep brown, burning eyes,
-From which the soul looked on me in fierce pity.
-And, as I gazed on that exultant beauty,
-The hunter and the slayer of men
-Was slain within me instantly,
-And I forgot the mountains and my home;
-My desolate mother, and my father's death;
-My captive sisters ... and the thron�d King!
-I was as one, that moment,
-New-born into the world
-Full-limbed and thewed,
-Yet, with the wondering heart
-Of earth-bewildered childhood.
-And, unto me, it seemed
-That, as the Queen looked down on me,
-There stole into her eyes
-Some dim remembrance of old dreams,
-That in their brown depths flickered
-With strange, elusive light,
-Like stars that tremble in still forest-pools.
-One spake--
-I scarce knew whom, nor cared--
-And bade me choose,
-Before the throne,
-Between a life of slavery,
-Or merciful, swift death--
-Death, that but a moment since,
-I would have dragged, exulting, on me--
-And with my eyes still set on the Queen's face,
-I answered:
-"I will serve":
-And scarcely heeded that my wrists were loosed.
-
-And, huddled in a stifling hut,
-That night, among my fellows,
-I could not sleep at all:
-But gazed, wild-eyed, till dawn upon that face,
-Which hovered o'er me, like the moon of dreams;
-And seemed to draw the wandering tides of life
-In one vast wave, which ever strove
-To climb the heavens wherein she moved,
-That it might break in triumphing foam about her.
-Not then, nor ever afterwards,
-Was I a slave, among my fellow-slaves,
-But one, who, with mean drudgery,
-And daily penance serves
-Before a holy altar,
-That, sometimes, as he labours, his glad eyes
-May catch a gleam of the immortal light
-Within the secret shrine;
-Yea! and, maybe, shall look, one day, with trembling,
-On the bright-haired, imperishable god.
-And, even when, day after day,
-I bore the big reed-baskets, laden
-With wet clay, digged beyond the Western moat,
-Although I seemed to tread,
-As treads the ox that turns the water-wheel,
-A blindfold round of servitude,
-My quenchless vision ever burned before me:
-And when, in after days, I fed
-The roaring oven-furnaces;
-And toiled by them through sweltering days,
-Though over me, at times, would come
-Great longing for the hill-tops,
-And the noise of torrent-waters:
-Or when, more skilled, I moulded
-The damp clay into bricks;
-And spread the colour and the glaze;
-And in strength-giving heat of glowing kilns,
-I baked them durable,
-Clean-shaped, and meet for service:
-My vision flamed yet brighter;
-And unto me it seemed
-As if my gross and useless clay were burned
-In a white ecstasy of lustral fire,
-That, in the fashioning of the house of love,
-I might serve perfectly the builder's need.
-Thus, many months, I laboured;
-Till, one day, at the noontide hour of rest,
-I lay; and with a sharpened reed--
-As temple-scribes write down the holy lore
-On tablets of wet clay--
-On the moist earth beside me,
-I limned a young fawn, cropping
-A bunch of tender, overhanging leaves.
-And, as I slowly drew,
-I dreamt a little sadly of the days,
-When I, too, roamed, untethered,
-And drinking in, unquestioning,
-The sunshine and the air,
-And all the rapture of the earth that turns,
-New every morning to the wondering sun,
-Refashioned in still nights of starry dews:
-But one, the while, unseen of me,
-Watched my unconscious hand, approving:
-And I was set, next morning,
-Among the craftsmen, who so deftly limned
-The hunts and battles for the palace walls.
-And, happily, with them I lived
-A life of loving labour, for each line
-Flowed from the knowledge of my heart:
-I drew the startled ostrich
-Fleeing from the far-flung noose:
-The brindled lynx; the onaga
-In dewy-plashing flight;
-The bristling boar, at bay,
-Crouched in a deadly ring of threatening spears,
-With streaming nostrils, and red eyes ablaze;
-The striped hy�na; the gaunt, green-eyed wolf;
-The skulking jackal; the grey, brush-tailed fox;
-The hunting leopard and the antelope,
-In mid-chase tense,
-With every thew astrain;
-The dappled panther; the brown-eyed gazelle,
-Butting with black horns through the tangled brake
-The nimble hare, alert, with pricked-up ears;
-The tiger, crouched, with yellow eyes afire;
-The shaggy mountain-goat,
-Perched on the utmost crag,
-Against the afterglow of lucent ruby,
-Or, poised with bunching hoofs
-In mid-spring over a dark, yawning chasm;
-Or the black stallion, with his tameless troop,
-Fording a mountain-river in the dawn.
-And, sometimes, as we toiled,
-A terrible fleeting rapture
-Would come upon me, when the Queen
-Passed by us with her maidens;
-Or paused, a moment, gazing,
-With tranced and kindling eyes upon our labours:
-But never did I dare, at any time,
-To lift my eyes to hers,
-And look, as soul on soul,
-As on the day her beauty brought to birth
-The strange new life within me.
-In silence she would ever leave us;
-And ever with her passing perished
-The light and colour of my work;
-So that my heart failed, daunted by that glimpse
-Of the ever-living beauty.
-And, sometimes, I would carve in ruddy teak,
-Or ivory, from the Indian merchants bought,
-Or in the rare, black basalt, little beasts
-To please the idle fancies of the King;
-Or model in wet clay, and cast in bronze,
-Great bulls and lions for the palace-courts;
-Or carve him seals of lapis-lazuli,
-Of jasper, amethyst and serpentine,
-Chalcedony--carnelian, chrysoprase,
-Agate, sardonyx, and chalcedonyx--
-Green jade, and alabaster;
-Or cut in stones that flashed and flickered
-Like a glancing kingfisher,
-Or, in the sun-filled amber,
-The kite with broad wings spread,
-Or little fluttering doves that pecked
-A golden bunch of dates:
-And then of these in settings of fine gold
-Made fillets, rings and ear-rings.
-
-Thus, one day,
-Dreaming, as ever, of the Queen,
-I wrought a golden serpent for her hair:
-And when I brought it to the King, next morn,
-Where he sat brooding over chess,
-He bade me bear it to the Queen, myself,
-And so, I went unto her, where she sat,
-Among her singing maidens, at the loom,
-Weaving a silken web of Tyrian dye.
-I laid the trinket at her feet, in silence:
-And she arose, and set it in her hair,
-Whose living lustre far outshone
-The cold, dead metal I had fashioned,
-As she stood before me, dreaming,
-In her robe of flowing blue;
-Then looked a moment on me with kind eyes.
-And though she spoke no word,
-I turned, and fled, in trembling,
-Before the light that shivered through me,
-And struck my soul with shuddering ecstasy:
-And, still, through many days,
-Although I did not look again
-Upon those dreaming eyes,
-Their visionary light
-Within my soul, revealed eternity.
-
-Thus, have the mortal years
-Flowed onward to the perfect end--
-This day of days,
-That never night shall quench,
-Nor darkness vanquish:
-And, at dawn,
-I die.
-
-And yet, this morning, as I slowly climbed
-The steep, ascending stages
-That lead up to the hanging-gardens--
-Where, tier on tier,
-The great brick arches bore
-Their April wealth of blossoms,
-Plumed with palm and dusky cypress--
-I little knew that I
-Who came to carve a garland
-Round a fountain's porphry basin,
-Should scale so soon the utmost peak of life.
-Throughout the morn I toiled,
-Until an hour ere noon--
-For no one, save the King and Queen,
-May walk in those high gardens, after midday--
-When, underneath a cypress shade,
-I paused, a moment, resting;
-And looking down upon the basking city,
-Beneath me slumbering deeply--
-Garden on garden glowing, grove on grove,
-Like some green fabric, shot with myriad hues,
-And chequered with white clusters of flat roofs,
-Aquiver in clear heat:
-And then I gazed up through the aching azure,
-At the restless kites that hover
-Ever over Babylon:
-And, as I watched one broad-winged bird that hung
-Above the seven-coloured pyramid
-Of Bel's great temple,
-With wide pinions spread,
-As though it kept eternal vigil over
-The golden image in the golden shrine,
-I thought of eagles poised
-Above the peaks of glittering snows,
-Beyond the Eastern plains.
-Half-dreaming, thus, I lay,
-Lulled by the tinkling waters,
-Till, unawares, sleep slowly overcame me;
-And noonday drifted by:
-And still, I slept, unheeding:
-And, in my sleep,
-I looked on Beauty in a quiet place
-Of forest gloom and immemorial dream:
-When, something rousing me from slumber,
-With waking eyes that yet seemed dream-enchanted,
-I looked upon the Queen,
-Where, in a secret close,
-Set thickly round with screens of yew and ilex,
-She stood upon the dark, broad brim
-Of a wide granite basin, gazing down,
-With dreaming eyes, into the glooming cool,
-Unraimented, save of the flickering gleam,
-Reflected from the lucent waters,
-That flowed before her silently:
-And slowly, from her feet,
-The cold light rippled up her body, till,
-Entangled in the meshes of her hair,
-It flooded the calm rapture of her face:
-When, dreaming still, she lifted up her eyes,
-Unseeing; and I looked upon her soul,
-Unveiled, in naked immortality,
-Untrammelled by the trappings of brief time,
-And cloaks of circumstance.
-How long I looked upon the perfect beauty,
-I cannot tell--
-Each moment, flowing to eternity,
-Bearing me further from time's narrow shores;
-Though, yet, a little while,
-From those unshadowed deeps time sought to hold me.
-
-Suddenly, I felt
-A ghostly arrow pierce my life;
-And I leapt up, and turning,
-I saw the King beside me,
-With steely, glittering eyes
-Shooting barbed anger,
-Though he coldly spake,
-With evil, curling lips:
-"Slave, thou art dead!"
-And yet I did not quail:
-But, looking 'twixt his brows,
-I answered: and he blenched before my words:
-"Nay!  I have seen:
-"And am newborn, a King!"
-And then his craven fingers
-Went quaking to his wagging beard,
-As if he felt my clutch upon his throat:
-Yet, though, with one quick blow,
-I might have hurled him down to death,
-I never stirred:
-And, eyeing me, he summoned
-The negro-eunuchs, who kept watch below:
-But I, ere they could spring up the first stage,
-Went forth to meet them;
-And they bound my wrists.
-
-And so, down from the hills, my life has flowed,
-Until, at fullest flood, it meets the sea.
-With calm and unregretful heart, I wait
-Till dawn shall loose the arrow from the bow.
-I, who, with eager, faltering hand have sought
-To fashion a little beauty, in the end,
-Have looked on the perfect beauty, and I die--
-Even as the priest, who, in the heart of night,
-Trembling before the thunder-riven shrine,
-Looks on the face of God, and perishes.
-I die...
-And yet, maybe, when earth lies heavily
-Upon the time-o'ertoppled towers,
-And tumbled walls, and broken gates of brass;
-And the winds whisper one another:
-"Where, Oh! where is Babylon?"
-In the dim underworld of dreaming shades,
-My soul shall seek out beauty
-And look, once more,
-Upon the unveiled vision...
-And not die.
-
-Night passes: and already in the court,
-Amid the plash of fountains,
-There sounds the pad of naked feet approaching.
-With slow, deliberate pace,
-As though they trod out all my perished years,
-The Nubians come, to lead me out to death.
-Slowly the great door opens;
-And clearer comes the call of waters;
-Cool airs are on my brow ...
-Lo! ... in the East, the dawn.
-
-
-
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+  <title>AKRA THE SLAVE</title>
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42051 ***</div>
+  <div class="document" id="akra-the-slave">
+    <h1 class="center document-title level-1 pfirst title"><span class="x-large">AKRA THE SLAVE</span></h1><!-- this is the default PG-RST stylesheet -->
+    <!-- figure and image styles for non-image formats -->
+    <!-- default transition -->
+    <!-- default attribution -->
+    <!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+    <div class="clearpage"></div><!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+    <div class="align-None container coverpage">
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"></div>
+      <div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 58%" id="figure-10">
+        <span id="cover"></span><img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="Cover" src="images/img-cover.jpg" />
+        <div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
+          <span class="italics">Cover</span>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="align-None container titlepage">
+      <p class="center pfirst"><span class="x-large">AKRA THE SLAVE</span></p>
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+      <p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">BY<br />
+      WILFRID WILSON GIBSON</span></p>
+      <div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"></div>
+      <p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">LONDON<br />
+      ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET<br />
+      MCMX</span></p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">Six years ago, I wrote this story down,</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">While yet the light of Eastern skies</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">Was in my eyes,</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">And still my heart, aglow with memories</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">Of sun-enraptured seas,</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">And that old sea-girt town.</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">Where, down dark alleys of enchanted night,</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">We stole, until we came</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">To where the great dome glimmered white.</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">And every minaret,</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">A shaft of pearly flame,</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">Beneath the cloudy moon...</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        &nbsp;
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">Six years ago!</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">Ah! soon--too soon,</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">Our tale, too, will be told:</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">And yet, and yet,</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">From this old Eastern tale we know,</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">Love's story never can grow old,</em>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <em class="italics">Till Love, himself, forget.</em>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="x-large">AKRA THE SLAVE</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"></div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>He thought to see me tremble</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And totter as an oar-snapt reed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When he spake death to me--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My courage, toppled in the dust,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Even as the head of cactus</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The camel-keeper slashes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That his beasts may browse, unscathed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The succulent, wounded green.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>He thought to have me, broken,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And grovelling at his feet;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Mouthing and mumbling to his sandal-ties,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In stammering dread of death--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Aye! even as a king,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Who, having from death's hand,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Received his crown and kingdom,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>For ever treads in terror of the hour</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When death shall jog his elbow,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Twitch the purple from his shoulders,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And claim again the borrowed crown.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, little need have I to fear</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The crouching, lean camp-follower,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Unto whose ever-gaping maw,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Day after day, I flung</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The spoils of bow and arrow,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Ere I was taken captive--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I, who have often, at my mother's breast,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Awakened in the night-time,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To see death leering on me from the cave-mouth,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A gaunt and slinking shape</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That snuffed the dying embers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Blotting out the friendly stars--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I, who, a scarce-weaned boy,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Have toddled, gay and fearless,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Down the narrow jungle-track,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Through bodeful forest-darkness, panther-eyed;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And have felt cold snakes uncoiling</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And gliding 'neath my naked sole,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>From clammy slumber startled;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>While, with sharp snap and crackle,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beast-trodden branches strained behind me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My father's hand scarce snatching me</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Before the spring of crouching death!</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, naught of this the King could know,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>He only knew that, on that far-off morning,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When first I came before him, captive,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Among my captive brothers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, as he lightly held, in idle fingers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Above my unbowed head,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In equal poise</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Death's freedom</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or the servitude of life,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I clutched at life:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And cared but little that his lips</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Should curl, to see me, broken,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A slave among his slaves.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Yet, never slave of his was I;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Nor did I take my new life from his nod--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I ... I who could have torn</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The proud life out of him,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Before his guards could stay me...</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Had she not sat beside him, on her throne.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And he, who knew not then,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Nor ever, till to-day,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Has known me aught but slave,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Remembering that time,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Spake doom of death to me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Idly, as to a slave:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And I await the end of night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And dawn of death,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Even as a slave awaits...</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Nay! as the unvanquished veteran</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Awaits the hour of victory.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In silence, wheels the night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Star-marshalled, over dreaming Babylon;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And none in all the sleeping city stirs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Save the cloaked sentries on the outer walls</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Who tread out patience 'twixt the gates of brass,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Numb with scarce-baffled slumber,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or, maybe, some unsleeping priest of Bel,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A lonely warder of eternity,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Who watches on the temple's seventh stage,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With the unslumbering gods.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Yet, may not she, the Queen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Whose beauty, slaying my body,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Brings my soul to immortal birth,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Although she does not know</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of my last vigil on the peak of life--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Yet, may not she awaken, troubled</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>By strange, bewildering dreams,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With heart a little fearful of the dawn</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of day, yet unrevealed?</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>There is no sound at all,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Save only the cool plashing</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of fountains in the courtyard</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Without my lonely cell:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>For fate has granted to me</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>This last, least consolation of sweet sound</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Though in the plains I perish,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I shall hear the noise of waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The noise of running waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As I die.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My earliest lullaby shall sing</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My heart again to slumber.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, even now, I hear</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Stream-voices, long-forgotten, calling me</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Back to the hills of home;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, dreaming, I remember</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The little yellow brooks</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That ever, day and night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Gush down the mountains singing,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Singing by the caves:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And hearkening unto them,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Once more a tiny baby,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A wee brown fist I dabble</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In the foaming cool,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Frothing round my wrist,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Spurting up my arm,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Spraying my warm face;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then again I chuckle,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As I see an empty gourd,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Fallen in the swirling waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Bobbing on the tawny eddies,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Swiftly out of sight.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And yet most clearly to remembrance comes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That far-off night, in early Spring,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When, loud with melted snow from Northern peaks,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The torrent roared and fretted;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>While, couched within the cavern,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The clamour kept me wakeful;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, even when I slept,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Tumbled, tumultuous, through my dreams,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And seemed to surge about me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As the brawl of armèd men.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And once I sprang from slumber,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Hot and startled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Dreaming that I felt</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A warm breath on my cheek,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As if a jackal nuzzled me;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or some dread, slinking foe</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Made certain of my sleeping</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Before he plunged the steel.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But nothing stirred within the glimmering cavern,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Where, all around me, lay my sleeping kindred;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, when I stole without, with noiseless footsteps,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To rouse the smouldering watchfire into flame,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And cast fresh, crackling brushwood on the blaze,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I caught no glint of arms betwixt the branches,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Nor any sound or rumour, save</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The choral noise of cold hill-waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Cold hill-waters singing,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Singing to the stars.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And so I turned me from the brooding night;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, couched again upon the leopard-skins,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I slept, till dawn, in dream-untroubled sleep.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I woke to see the cold sky kindling red,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beyond the mounded ash of the spent fire;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And lay, a moment, watching</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The pearly light, caught, trembling,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In dewy-beaded spiders' webs</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>About the cave-mouth woven.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Then I arose;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And left my kindred, slumbering--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My mother, by my father,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, at her breast, her youngest babe,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With dimpled fingers clutching at her bosom;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, all around them, lying</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Their sons and daughters, beautiful in sleep,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With parted lips,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And easy limbs outstretched</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Along the tumbled bedskins:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And while they slumbered yet in shades of night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I sprang out naked</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Into eager dawn.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The sun had not yet scaled the eastern ridge:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And still the vales were hidden from my eyes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>By snowy wreaths of swathing mist:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, high upon a scar</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That jutted sheer and stark,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In cold grey light,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>There stood an antelope,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With lifted muzzle snuffing the fresh day;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When scenting me afar,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>He plunged into the mist</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With one quick, startled bound:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, from the smoking vapour,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Arose a gentle pattering,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As, down the rocky trail,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The unseen herd went trotting</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Upon their leader's heels.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And from the clear horizon</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The exultant sun sprang god-like:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And on a little mound I stood,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With eager arms outstretched,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That, over my cold body,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The first warm golden beams</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of his life-giving light might fall.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And thus, awhile, I stood.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In radiant adoration tranced,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until I caught the call of waters;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, running downwards to the stream,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That plunged into a darkling pool,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Where, in the rock was scooped a wide, deep basin;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Upon the glassy brink,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A moment, I hung, shivering,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And gazing down through deeps of lucent shadow;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then I leapt headlong,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And felt the cloven waters</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Closing, icy-cold, above me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, again, with sobbing breath,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Battled to the light and air:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And I ran into the sunshine,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Shaking from my tingling limbs</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Showers of scintillating drops</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Over radiant, dewy beds</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of the snowy cyclamen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And dark-red anemone,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Till my tawny body glowed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With warm, ruddy, pulsing life.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then again I sought the stream,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And plunged; and now, more boldly,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I crossed the pool, with easy stroke;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And climbed the further crag;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, turning, plunged again.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And so, I dived and swam,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Till pangs of hunger pricked</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My idle fancy homeward:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And eagerly I climbed the hill;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When, not a sling's throw from the cavern,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Stooping to pluck a red anemone,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To prank the wet, black tangle of my hair,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I heard a shout;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And looking up,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I saw strange men</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With lifted spears</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Bear down on me:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And as I turned,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A javelin sang</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Above my shrinking shoulder,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And bit the ground before me.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, swift as light I sped,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until I reached the pool,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And leapt therein:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And he who pressed most hotly on my heels,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Fell stumbling after.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Still I never slackened,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Although I heard a floundering splash,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then the laughter of his comrades:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, as I swam for life,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Betwixt my thrusting heels,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Another spear that clove the crystal waters</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Glanced underneath my body,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And in the stream-bed quivered bolt upright,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Caught in a cleft of rock.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With frantic arm I struck</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Straight as a snake across the pool,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And climbed the further bank;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And plunging through deep brake,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Ran wildly onward,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Startling as I went</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A browsing herd of antelope,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That, bounding, fled before me down the valley</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And after them I raced,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As though the hunter,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Not the hunted,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until the chase sang in my blood,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And braced my straining thews.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I knew not if men followed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Yet, on I sped, impetuously,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As speeds the fleet-foot onaga,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That breasts the windy morning,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With lifted head, and nostrils wide,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Exultant in his youth.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>So, on and ever on,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Scarce knowing why I ran--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Enough for me to feel</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Earth beaten back behind my heels,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And hear the loud air singing</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The blood-song in my ears:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Till, stumbling headlong over</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>An unseen, fallen branch,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I rolled in a deep bed of withered leaves;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And lay, full-length in shuddering ecstasy</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of hot, tumultuous blood that rioted</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Through every throbbing vein.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But when again, I breathed more easily,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And my wild, fluttering heart kept slower beat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Hot-foot, my thoughts ran, wondering, backward:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And I arose and followed them</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With swift and stealthy pace,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until I reached the stream.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Along the bank I stole with wary step,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until I came to where the waters</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Narrowed, raging through a gorge,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Nigh the threshold of my home:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And across the thunderous flood,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>From crag to crag I leapt:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then I climbed a cedar,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>From whose close ambush I could watch</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Who came or went about the cavern-mouth.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I lay along a level branch:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, through the thick, dark screen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I peered with eager eyes:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But no one crossed my sight.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The whole land lay before me, drowsing</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In deepest noonday slumber:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>No twig stirred in the breathless blaze;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And underneath the boughs no serpent rustled:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, in the earth and air,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Naught waked, save one lone eagle, nigh the sun,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With wings, unbaffled, beating</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Up the blue, unclouded heavens.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A dreamless, suave security</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Seemed brooding o'er the valley's golden slumber,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Whence rang or flashed no hint of lurking peril.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I dropped to earth,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And crouching low,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I stole yet nearer</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Through the brake:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Till, drawing nigh the cavern-mouth,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I heard the sound of half-hushed sobbing:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then I saw, within the gloom,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My mother and my sisters clustering round</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My father's body, lying stark and dead,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A spear-wound in his breast.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And as I crept to them, they did not hear me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Nor ever lift their heads;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, shuddering, crouched together,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With drooping breasts half-hid in falling hair,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>By that familiar form</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In such strange slumber bound.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Only the baby, on her shoulder slung,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Saw me, and crowed me greeting,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As I stooped down to touch my weeping mother,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Who, turning suddenly,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With wild tear-fevered eyes;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Arose with whispered warning;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, even then, too late.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Already, from behind,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Around my throat</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>An arm was flung;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And heavily I fell:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Yet, with a desperate wrench,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I slipped the clutch of my assailant:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And picking up a slingstone that lay handy,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I crashed it through his helm;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And dead he dropped.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And now upon me all his fellows thronged,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Like hounds about an antelope;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And gripped my naked limbs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And dragged me down,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A struggling beast, among them:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And desperately I fought,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As fights the boar at bay,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When all the yelling pack,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With lathered lips, and white teeth gnashing,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Is closing in upon him;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And in his quivering flank, and gasping throat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>He feels the fangs of death:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Till, overcome at last,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>They bound me hand and foot,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With knotted, leathern thongs;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And dragged me out to where, beneath the trees,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Trussed in like manner, with defiant eyes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My brothers lay, already, side by side.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>They laid me in the shade;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And flicked my wincing spirit</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With laughter and light words:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>"Now is the roe-buck taken!"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Then another,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>On whose dark, sullen face there burned a livid weal</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>"A buck in flight's a panther brought to bay!"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then his fellow:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>"True enough! and yet,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>For such young thews they give good gold--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>They give good gold in Babylon!"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, laughing thus, they left us,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To lie through hours of aching silence,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until, at length, the cool of evening fell;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When they returned from slumber;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And loosed the ankle-cords that we might stand;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And bade our mother feed us;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And she, with tender fingers, held</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The milk-bowl to our parching lips;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And thrust dried dates betwixt our teeth;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And wept, to see us standing there,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With helpless hands, before her.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Then, bringing out their mules, they saddled them;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And tied us to the girths on either hand.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>They drove my weeping sisters from the cavern;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And sought to tear my mother from her home;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But she escaped them;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And they let her bide</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Amid the ruins of her life,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Whose light had dropped, so suddenly,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>From out the highest heavens:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, when I turned to look on her,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And win from her a last farewell,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I saw her, sitting desolate betwixt</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Her silent husband and her wailing babe,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With still, strange eyes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That stared upon the dead, unseeing,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>While her own children went from her,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Scarce knowing that they left her, nevermore</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To look upon her face.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Thus, we set out, as over</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The darkening, Southern crags</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The new moon's keen, curved blade was thrust:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My sisters trooping on before us,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Like a drove of young gazelles,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Which, in the dead of night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With pards in leash, and torches flaring,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The hunters have encompassed.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>They moved with timid steps,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And little runs;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Stumbling, with stifled cries;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And starting, panic-shot,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>From every lurking shadow--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Behind them, terror's lifted lash:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Before them, ever crouching,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The horror of the unknown night--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>While, as they moved before us,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The moonlight shivered off their shrinking shoulders</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And naked, glancing limbs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In shimmering, strange beauty.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And closely on their heels,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I, with my brothers, foremost in the file,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Marched, tethered 'twixt the plodding beasts,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Whose stolid riders sat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Each with his javelin on the pummel couched,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In watchful silence, with dark eyes alert.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And once, nigh driven crazy</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>By the tugging of the thongs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I sprang into the air,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As down a rocky steep we scrambled;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And strove to burst the galling bonds,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or hurl my guards on one another;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, all too sure of foot, the beasts,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And too securely girths and cords</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Held me, and I stumbled.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Instantly a thong</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Struck my wincing shoulders,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Blow on thudding blow.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I bit my lips; and strode on silently;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Nor fought again for freedom.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>So on we journeyed through the night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And down familiar mountain-tracks,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Through deep, dark forest,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Ever down and down;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Fording the streams, whose moon-bright waters flowed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In eddies of delicious, aching cool,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>About our weary thighs.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, once, when in mid-torrent,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That swirled, girth-high about the plunging beasts,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A startled otter, glancing</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Before their very hoofs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Affrighted them; and, rearing,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With blind and desperate floundering,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>They nearly dragged us down to death:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, ere we righted,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With a fearful cry,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My eldest sister from the bevy broke;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And struck down-stream</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With wild arm lashing desperately,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until the current caught her;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And she sank, to rise no more.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And on again we travelled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Down through the darkling woodlands:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And once I saw green, burning eyes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Where, on a low-hung bough,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A night-black panther crouched,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As though to pounce upon my sisters;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, the sudden crack of whips,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Startling him, he snarled;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And turned with lashing tail,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Crashing through dense brushwood.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When, once, again we came unto a clearing,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The night was near its noon:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And all the vales that lay before us</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Were filled with moving, moonlit mists,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That seemed phantasmal waters</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of that enchanted world,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Where we, in dreams, sail over still lagoons,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Throughout eternal night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And under unknown stars.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Still, on we fared, unresting,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until the low moon paled;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When, halting on a mountain-spur,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>We first looked down on Babylon,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Far in the dreaming West,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A cluster of dim towers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Scarce visible to wearied eyes.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>We camped within a sheltering cedar-grove;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And all the day, beneath the level boughs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Upon the agelong-bedded needles lay,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Half-slumbering, with fleeting, fretful dreams</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That could not quite forget the chafing cords,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That held our arms in aching numbness:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, ere the noon, in sounder sleep I sank,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Dreaming I floated on a still, deep pool,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beneath dark, overhanging branches;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And seemed to feel upon my cheek</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The cool caress of waters;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>While, far above me, through the night of trees,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Noon glimmered faintly as the glint of stars.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As thus I lay, in indolent ecstasy,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>O'er me, suddenly, the waters</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Curved, and I was dragged,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Down and down,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Through gurgling deeps</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of swirling, drowning darkness...</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When I awoke in terror;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And strove to sit upright;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, tautly, with a jerk,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The thongs that held me to my brothers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Dragged me back to earth.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Awhile I lay, with staring eyes, awake,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Watching a big, grey spider, crouched overhead,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In ambush 'neath a twig, beside her web,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Oft sallying out, to bind yet more securely,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The half-entangled flies.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then, once more, I slumbered;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And dreamed a face leant over me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>More fair than any face</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My waking eyes had ever looked upon.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Its beauty burned above me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Not dusky like my sisters' faces,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But pale as the wan moon,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Reflected in a flood</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of darkly flowing waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or as the creaming froth,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That, born amid the thunder of the fall,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Floats on the river's bosom in the sunshine,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Bubble after bubble,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Perishing in air.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>So, a moment, over me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With frail and fleeting glimmer</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of strange elusive, evanescent light,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The holy vision hovered.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And yet, whenever, with a fervent longing,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I sought to look into the darkling eyes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The face would fade from me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As foam caught in an eddy:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until, at last, I wakened,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, wondering, saw a pale star gleaming</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Betwixt the cedar-branches.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And soon our captors stirred:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And we arose, to see</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The walls and towers of Babylon, dark</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Against the clear rose of the afterglow,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Already in the surge of shadows caught,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As night, beneath us, slowly Westward swept,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Flooding the dreaming plain that lay before us,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Vast, limitless, bewildering,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And strange to mountain-eyes.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As down the slope we went,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And when, at last, we left behind</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The hills and singing waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A vague, oppressive fear</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of those dim, silent leagues of level land,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Fell on me; and I almost seemed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To bear upon my shoulders</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The vaster dome of overwhelming night;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, trembling like a child,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I looked askance at my two captors,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As they rode on in heedless silence,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Their swarthy faces sharp</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Against the lucent sky.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then, once more,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The old, familiar watchfires of the stars</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Brought courage to my bosom;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And the young moon's brilliant horn</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Was exalted in the sky:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And soon, the glooming wilderness</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Awoke with glittering waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As a friendly wind sang unto me</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Among the swaying reeds:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>While, cloud on cloud,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The snowy flocks of pelican</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Before our coming rose;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, as they swerved to Southward,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The moonlight shivered off their flashing pinions.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>So, on we marched, till dawn, across the plain;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, on and on,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beneath the waxing moon,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Each night we travelled Westward;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until, at last, we halted</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>By the broad dull-gleaming flood</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of mighty, roaring Tigris;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And aroused from midnight slumber</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The surly, grumbling ferrymen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And crossed the swollen waters</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Upon the great, skin rafts:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Then on again we fared,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until the far, dim towers soared in the dawnlight</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And we encamped beside a stream,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beneath dry, rustling palms.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And heavily I slumbered:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And only wakened once, at noon,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When, lifting up my head,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I saw the towers of Babylon, burning blue,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Far off, in the blind heat:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And slept again, till sunset,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When we took our Westward course</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Along the low bank of a broad canal,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That glimmered wanly 'neath a moonless sky.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Higher, and higher still,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As we drew slowly nearer,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Arose the vasty walls and serried towers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That seemed to thrust among the stars,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And on embattled summits bear the night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Unbowed beneath their burden,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As easily as, with unruffled brows,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And limber, upright bodies,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The village-daughters carry</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>At eve the brimming pitchers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Poised upon their heads.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And when, above us, the wide-looming walls</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Shut out the Western stars;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beneath their shade, at midnight, we encamped,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To await till dawn should open</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The city gates for us.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That night we did not sleep,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, crouched upon the ground,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>We watched the moon rise over Babylon,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Till, far behind us, o'er the glittering waste,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Was flung the wall's huge shadow,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And the moving shades of sentries,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Who, unseen above our heads,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Paced through the night incessantly.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Thus long we sat, hushed with awed expectation,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And gazing o'er the plain that we had travelled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As, gradually, the climbing moon,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Escaping from the clustering towers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Revealed far-gleaming waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And the sharp, shrill cry of owls,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Sweeping by on noiseless plumes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Assailed the vasty silence,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Shivering off like darts</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>From some impenetrable shield.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, as we waited,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Sometimes, fearfully,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I gazed up those stupendous, soaring walls</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of that great, slumbering city, wondering</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>What doom behind the bastioned ramparts slept,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>What destiny, beneath the brooding night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Awaited me beyond the brazen gates.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, naught the blind, indifferent stars revealed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Though towards the long night's ending,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Half-dazed with gazing up that aching height,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A drowsiness fell over me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And in a restless waking-trance I lay,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Dreaming that Life and Death before me stood.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, as each thrust towards me a shrouded cup,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Implacable silence bade me choose and drink.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, as I stretched a blind, uncertain hand</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To take the cup of death,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I wakened, and dawn trembled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>At last, beyond the Eastern hills,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, star by star, night failed;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And eagerly the sun leapt up the sky,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, as his flashing rays</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Smote kindling towers and flaming gates of brass,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Across the reedy moat</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A clattering drawbridge fell,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And wide the glittering portals slowly swung:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And there came streaming out in slow procession</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A sleepy caravan of slouching camels,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Groaning and grumbling as they strode along</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beneath their mountainous burdens,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Upon whose swaying summits,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Impassively, the blue-robed merchants sat.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>They passed us slowly by,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then we took the bridge,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, while our captors parleyed with the guards,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Who stood, on either hand,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With naked swords,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I turned my head,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And saw for the last time, far Eastward,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The cold, snow-brilliant peaks,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beyond my dim, blue, native hills.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, as I looked, my thoughts flew homeward,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And I, one dreaming moment,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Stood by my mourning mother in the cavern</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of desolation, looking on the dead.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then, between the brazen gate-posts,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And underneath the brazen lintel,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>At last we entered Babylon.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Before us, yet another wall arose,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, turning sharply</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Down a narrow way,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The living breath of heaven seemed shut from us</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As though beneath the beetling crags</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of some deep mountain-gorge--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>By cliffs of wall, on either hand,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That soared up to the narrow sky,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Which with dim lustre lit</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The shimmering surface of enamelled brick,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Whereon, through giant groves,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Blue-coated hunters chased the boar,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or 'loosed red-tasselled falcon</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>After flying crane.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But soon we reached another gate,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Sword-guarded, and we entered,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And plunged into the traffic</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of clamorous merchantmen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Speeding their business ere the heat of day.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And as we jostled, slowly,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Through bewildering bazaars,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The porters and the idler wayfarers</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>All turned to look upon our shame,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With cold, unpitying eyes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And indolent, gaping mouths,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or jested with our captors,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until we left the busier thoroughfares,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And walked through groves of cypress and of ilex,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Where not a sound or rumour troubled</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The silence of the dark-plumed boughs</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And glimmering deeps of peace,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Save only the cool spurt of waters</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That, from a myriad unseen jets,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Fretted the crystal airs of morning,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And fell in frolic showers</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of twinkling, rainbow drops,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That plashed in unseen basins;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And through the blaze of almond-orchards,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Tremulous with blossom</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That flickered in a rosy, silken snow</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of falling petals over us,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And wreathed about our feet</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In soft and scented drifts;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beneath pomegranate trees in young, green leaf,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And through vast gardens, glowing with strange flowers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Such as no April kindled into bloom</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Among the valleys of my native hills.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>We came unto a court of many fountains,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Where, leaping off their jaded mules,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Our captors loosed the thongs that held us,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But left our wrists still bound.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And one with great clay pitchers came,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And over our hot bodies, travel-stained,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Poured out cool, cleansing waters</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In a gurgling, crystal stream,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And flung coarse robes of indigo</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>About our naked shoulders.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And here we left behind us</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The maidens and the younger boys,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And passing through a gateway,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Came out upon a busy wharf,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Where, southward, midway through the city,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The broad Euphrates flows,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>His dark flood thronged with merchant-dhows,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And fishing-boats of reed and bitumen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Piled high with glistering barbel, freshly-caught;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And foreign craft, with many-coloured sails,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And laden deep with precious merchandise,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That, over wide, bewildering waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Across the perilous world,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The adventurous, dark-bearded mariners,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Who swear by unknown gods in alien tongues,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Bring ever to the gates of Babylon.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>We crossed the drawbridge, round whose granite piers</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Swirled strong, Spring-swollen waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Loud and tawny,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, through great brazen portals,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Passed within the palace gates,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When first I saw afar the hanging-gardens,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Arch on arch,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And tier on tier,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Against a glowing sky.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Two strapping Nubians, like young giants</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Hewn from blue-black marble</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>By some immortal hand in immemorial ages,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Led us slowly onward.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The dappled pard-skins, slung across their shoulders,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Scarcely hid the ox-like thews,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beneath the dark skin rippling,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As they strode along before us.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Through courts of alabaster,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And painted corridors,</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And chambers fair with flowery tapestries</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>They led us, wondering, till at last we came</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Into a vast, dim hall of glimmering gold,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The end of all our journeying.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, as we halted on the threshold,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My eyes could see but little for a moment,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In the dusky, heavy air,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Through the ceaseless cloud of incense,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Rising from the smouldering braziers</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To the gold, grey-clouded dome,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Tingling strangely in my nostrils,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As I came from morning airs;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Then slowly filling them with drowsy fume,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When, looking up with half-dazed eyes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I saw the King upon his golden throne:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And through my body</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Raged rebellious blood,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In baffled riot beating</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>At my corded wrists,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As if to burst the galling bonds,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That I might hurl that lean, swart face,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>So idly turning towards us,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With thin curled lips,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And cold, incurious eyes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To headlong death--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Yea! even though I tumbled</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The towers of Babylon round about my head.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, when our captors bowed their foreheads low,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Obsequious to the throne,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I stood upright,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And gazed my loathing on that listless form--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The gay, embroidered robe,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The golden cap, that prankt the crispèd locks,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The short, square beard, new-oiled and barbered--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, in a flash,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A heavy blow</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Fell on my head,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And struck me to my knees</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Before the sleek, indifferent king.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then, on either hand,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With gripping palms upon my shoulders set,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The Nubians towered above me</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Like mighty men of stone.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And savagely I struggled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Half-stunned, to rise again;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When, as I vainly battled</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In their unrelenting clutch,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My eyes lit for the first time on the Queen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Who sat upon the daïs, by her lord</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Half-shadowed, on a throne of ivory,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And all the hate died in me, as I saw</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The face that hovered over me in dream,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When I had slept beneath the low-boughed cedar:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The moon-pale brows, o'er which the clustered hair</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Hung like the smoke of torches, ruddy-gold,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Against a canopy of peacock plumes:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The deep brown, burning eyes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>From which the soul looked on me in fierce pity.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, as I gazed on that exultant beauty,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The hunter and the slayer of men</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Was slain within me instantly,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And I forgot the mountains and my home;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My desolate mother, and my father's death;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My captive sisters ... and the thronèd King!</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I was as one, that moment,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>New-born into the world</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Full-limbed and thewed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Yet, with the wondering heart</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of earth-bewildered childhood.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, unto me, it seemed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That, as the Queen looked down on me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>There stole into her eyes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Some dim remembrance of old dreams,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That in their brown depths flickered</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With strange, elusive light,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Like stars that tremble in still forest-pools.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>One spake--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I scarce knew whom, nor cared--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And bade me choose,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Before the throne,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Between a life of slavery,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or merciful, swift death--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Death, that but a moment since,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I would have dragged, exulting, on me--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And with my eyes still set on the Queen's face,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I answered:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>"I will serve":</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And scarcely heeded that my wrists were loosed.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, huddled in a stifling hut,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That night, among my fellows,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I could not sleep at all:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But gazed, wild-eyed, till dawn upon that face,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Which hovered o'er me, like the moon of dreams;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And seemed to draw the wandering tides of life</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In one vast wave, which ever strove</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To climb the heavens wherein she moved,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That it might break in triumphing foam about her.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Not then, nor ever afterwards,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Was I a slave, among my fellow-slaves,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But one, who, with mean drudgery,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And daily penance serves</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Before a holy altar,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That, sometimes, as he labours, his glad eyes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>May catch a gleam of the immortal light</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Within the secret shrine;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Yea! and, maybe, shall look, one day, with trembling,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>On the bright-haired, imperishable god.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, even when, day after day,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I bore the big reed-baskets, laden</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With wet clay, digged beyond the Western moat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Although I seemed to tread,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As treads the ox that turns the water-wheel,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A blindfold round of servitude,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My quenchless vision ever burned before me:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And when, in after days, I fed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The roaring oven-furnaces;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And toiled by them through sweltering days,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Though over me, at times, would come</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Great longing for the hill-tops,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And the noise of torrent-waters:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or when, more skilled, I moulded</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The damp clay into bricks;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And spread the colour and the glaze;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And in strength-giving heat of glowing kilns,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I baked them durable,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Clean-shaped, and meet for service:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My vision flamed yet brighter;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And unto me it seemed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As if my gross and useless clay were burned</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In a white ecstasy of lustral fire,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That, in the fashioning of the house of love,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I might serve perfectly the builder's need.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Thus, many months, I laboured;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Till, one day, at the noontide hour of rest,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I lay; and with a sharpened reed--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As temple-scribes write down the holy lore</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>On tablets of wet clay--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>On the moist earth beside me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I limned a young fawn, cropping</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A bunch of tender, overhanging leaves.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, as I slowly drew,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I dreamt a little sadly of the days,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When I, too, roamed, untethered,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And drinking in, unquestioning,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The sunshine and the air,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And all the rapture of the earth that turns,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>New every morning to the wondering sun,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Refashioned in still nights of starry dews:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But one, the while, unseen of me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Watched my unconscious hand, approving:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And I was set, next morning,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Among the craftsmen, who so deftly limned</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The hunts and battles for the palace walls.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, happily, with them I lived</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A life of loving labour, for each line</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Flowed from the knowledge of my heart:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I drew the startled ostrich</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Fleeing from the far-flung noose:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The brindled lynx; the onaga</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In dewy-plashing flight;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The bristling boar, at bay,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Crouched in a deadly ring of threatening spears,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With streaming nostrils, and red eyes ablaze;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The striped hyæna; the gaunt, green-eyed wolf;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The skulking jackal; the grey, brush-tailed fox;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The hunting leopard and the antelope,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In mid-chase tense,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With every thew astrain;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The dappled panther; the brown-eyed gazelle,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Butting with black horns through the tangled brake</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The nimble hare, alert, with pricked-up ears;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The tiger, crouched, with yellow eyes afire;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The shaggy mountain-goat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Perched on the utmost crag,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Against the afterglow of lucent ruby,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or, poised with bunching hoofs</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In mid-spring over a dark, yawning chasm;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or the black stallion, with his tameless troop,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Fording a mountain-river in the dawn.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, sometimes, as we toiled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A terrible fleeting rapture</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Would come upon me, when the Queen</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Passed by us with her maidens;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or paused, a moment, gazing,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With tranced and kindling eyes upon our labours:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But never did I dare, at any time,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To lift my eyes to hers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And look, as soul on soul,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As on the day her beauty brought to birth</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The strange new life within me.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In silence she would ever leave us;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And ever with her passing perished</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The light and colour of my work;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>So that my heart failed, daunted by that glimpse</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of the ever-living beauty.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, sometimes, I would carve in ruddy teak,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or ivory, from the Indian merchants bought,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or in the rare, black basalt, little beasts</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To please the idle fancies of the King;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or model in wet clay, and cast in bronze,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Great bulls and lions for the palace-courts;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or carve him seals of lapis-lazuli,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of jasper, amethyst and serpentine,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Chalcedony--carnelian, chrysoprase,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Agate, sardonyx, and chalcedonyx--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Green jade, and alabaster;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or cut in stones that flashed and flickered</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Like a glancing kingfisher,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or, in the sun-filled amber,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The kite with broad wings spread,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Or little fluttering doves that pecked</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A golden bunch of dates:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then of these in settings of fine gold</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Made fillets, rings and ear-rings.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Thus, one day,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Dreaming, as ever, of the Queen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I wrought a golden serpent for her hair:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And when I brought it to the King, next morn,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Where he sat brooding over chess,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>He bade me bear it to the Queen, myself,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And so, I went unto her, where she sat,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Among her singing maidens, at the loom,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Weaving a silken web of Tyrian dye.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I laid the trinket at her feet, in silence:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And she arose, and set it in her hair,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Whose living lustre far outshone</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The cold, dead metal I had fashioned,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As she stood before me, dreaming,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In her robe of flowing blue;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Then looked a moment on me with kind eyes.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And though she spoke no word,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I turned, and fled, in trembling,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Before the light that shivered through me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And struck my soul with shuddering ecstasy:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, still, through many days,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Although I did not look again</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Upon those dreaming eyes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Their visionary light</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Within my soul, revealed eternity.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Thus, have the mortal years</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Flowed onward to the perfect end--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>This day of days,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That never night shall quench,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Nor darkness vanquish:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, at dawn,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I die.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And yet, this morning, as I slowly climbed</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The steep, ascending stages</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That lead up to the hanging-gardens--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Where, tier on tier,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The great brick arches bore</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Their April wealth of blossoms,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Plumed with palm and dusky cypress--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I little knew that I</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Who came to carve a garland</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Round a fountain's porphry basin,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Should scale so soon the utmost peak of life.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Throughout the morn I toiled,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until an hour ere noon--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>For no one, save the King and Queen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>May walk in those high gardens, after midday--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When, underneath a cypress shade,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I paused, a moment, resting;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And looking down upon the basking city,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beneath me slumbering deeply--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Garden on garden glowing, grove on grove,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Like some green fabric, shot with myriad hues,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And chequered with white clusters of flat roofs,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Aquiver in clear heat:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then I gazed up through the aching azure,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>At the restless kites that hover</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Ever over Babylon:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, as I watched one broad-winged bird that hung</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Above the seven-coloured pyramid</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of Bel's great temple,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With wide pinions spread,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As though it kept eternal vigil over</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The golden image in the golden shrine,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I thought of eagles poised</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Above the peaks of glittering snows,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Beyond the Eastern plains.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Half-dreaming, thus, I lay,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Lulled by the tinkling waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Till, unawares, sleep slowly overcame me;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And noonday drifted by:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And still, I slept, unheeding:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, in my sleep,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I looked on Beauty in a quiet place</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of forest gloom and immemorial dream:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When, something rousing me from slumber,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With waking eyes that yet seemed dream-enchanted,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I looked upon the Queen,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Where, in a secret close,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Set thickly round with screens of yew and ilex,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>She stood upon the dark, broad brim</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Of a wide granite basin, gazing down,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With dreaming eyes, into the glooming cool,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Unraimented, save of the flickering gleam,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Reflected from the lucent waters,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>That flowed before her silently:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And slowly, from her feet,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The cold light rippled up her body, till,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Entangled in the meshes of her hair,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>It flooded the calm rapture of her face:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>When, dreaming still, she lifted up her eyes,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Unseeing; and I looked upon her soul,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Unveiled, in naked immortality,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Untrammelled by the trappings of brief time,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And cloaks of circumstance.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>How long I looked upon the perfect beauty,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I cannot tell--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Each moment, flowing to eternity,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Bearing me further from time's narrow shores;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Though, yet, a little while,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>From those unshadowed deeps time sought to hold me.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Suddenly, I felt</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>A ghostly arrow pierce my life;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And I leapt up, and turning,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I saw the King beside me,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With steely, glittering eyes</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Shooting barbed anger,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Though he coldly spake,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With evil, curling lips:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>"Slave, thou art dead!"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And yet I did not quail:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But, looking 'twixt his brows,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I answered: and he blenched before my words:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>"Nay! I have seen:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>"And am newborn, a King!"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And then his craven fingers</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Went quaking to his wagging beard,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As if he felt my clutch upon his throat:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Yet, though, with one quick blow,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I might have hurled him down to death,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I never stirred:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And, eyeing me, he summoned</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The negro-eunuchs, who kept watch below:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>But I, ere they could spring up the first stage,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Went forth to meet them;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And they bound my wrists.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And so, down from the hills, my life has flowed,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Until, at fullest flood, it meets the sea.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With calm and unregretful heart, I wait</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Till dawn shall loose the arrow from the bow.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I, who, with eager, faltering hand have sought</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>To fashion a little beauty, in the end,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Have looked on the perfect beauty, and I die--</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Even as the priest, who, in the heart of night,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Trembling before the thunder-riven shrine,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Looks on the face of God, and perishes.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>I die...</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And yet, maybe, when earth lies heavily</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Upon the time-o'ertoppled towers,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And tumbled walls, and broken gates of brass;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And the winds whisper one another:</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>"Where, Oh! where is Babylon?"</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>In the dim underworld of dreaming shades,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>My soul shall seek out beauty</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And look, once more,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Upon the unveiled vision...</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And not die.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="line-block outermost">
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Night passes: and already in the court,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Amid the plash of fountains,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>There sounds the pad of naked feet approaching.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>With slow, deliberate pace,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>As though they trod out all my perished years,</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>The Nubians come, to lead me out to death.</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Slowly the great door opens;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>And clearer comes the call of waters;</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Cool airs are on my brow ...</span>
+      </div>
+      <div class="line">
+        <span>Lo! ... in the East, the dawn.</span>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"></div>
+    <p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED.</span></p>
+    <div class="vspace" style="height: 6em"></div><!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+    <div class="backmatter"></div>
+    <div class="cleardoublepage"></div>
+  </div>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42051 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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-<title>AKRA THE SLAVE</title>
-<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" />
-<meta name="PG.Title" content="Akra the Slave" />
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-<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Wilfrid Wilson Gibson" />
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-<div class="document" id="akra-the-slave">
-<h1 class="center document-title level-1 pfirst title"><span class="x-large">AKRA THE SLAVE</span></h1>
-
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-<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the </span><a class="reference internal" href="#project-gutenberg-license">Project Gutenberg License</a><span>
-included with this eBook or online at
-</span><a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a><span>.</span></p>
-<p class="noindent pnext"></p>
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-</div>
-<div class="align-None container" id="pg-machine-header">
-<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>Title: Akra the Slave
-<br />
-<br />Author: Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
-<br />
-<br />Release Date: February 08, 2013 [EBook #42051]
-<br />
-<br />Language: English
-<br />
-<br />Character set encoding: UTF-8</span></p>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-start-line"><span>*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK </span><span>AKRA THE SLAVE</span><span> ***</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
-</div>
-<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by Al Haines.</span></p>
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-</div>
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-</div>
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-<div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin">
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-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class="align-None container titlepage">
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="x-large">AKRA THE SLAVE</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">BY
-<br />WILFRID WILSON GIBSON</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">LONDON
-<br />ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET
-<br />MCMX</span></p>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">Six years ago, I wrote this story down,</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">While yet the light of Eastern skies</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">Was in my eyes,</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">And still my heart, aglow with memories</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">Of sun-enraptured seas,</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">And that old sea-girt town.</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">Where, down dark alleys of enchanted night,</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">We stole, until we came</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">To where the great dome glimmered white.</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">And every minaret,</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">A shaft of pearly flame,</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">Beneath the cloudy moon...</em></div>
-<div class="line"> </div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">Six years ago!</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">Ah! soon--too soon,</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">Our tale, too, will be told:</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">And yet, and yet,</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">From this old Eastern tale we know,</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">Love's story never can grow old,</em></div>
-<div class="line"><em class="italics">Till Love, himself, forget.</em></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="x-large">AKRA THE SLAVE</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em">
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>He thought to see me tremble</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And totter as an oar-snapt reed,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When he spake death to me--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My courage, toppled in the dust,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Even as the head of cactus</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The camel-keeper slashes</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That his beasts may browse, unscathed,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The succulent, wounded green.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>He thought to have me, broken,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And grovelling at his feet;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Mouthing and mumbling to his sandal-ties,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In stammering dread of death--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Aye! even as a king,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Who, having from death's hand,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Received his crown and kingdom,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>For ever treads in terror of the hour</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When death shall jog his elbow,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Twitch the purple from his shoulders,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And claim again the borrowed crown.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, little need have I to fear</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The crouching, lean camp-follower,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Unto whose ever-gaping maw,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Day after day, I flung</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The spoils of bow and arrow,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Ere I was taken captive--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I, who have often, at my mother's breast,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Awakened in the night-time,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To see death leering on me from the cave-mouth,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A gaunt and slinking shape</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That snuffed the dying embers,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Blotting out the friendly stars--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I, who, a scarce-weaned boy,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Have toddled, gay and fearless,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Down the narrow jungle-track,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Through bodeful forest-darkness, panther-eyed;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And have felt cold snakes uncoiling</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And gliding 'neath my naked sole,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>From clammy slumber startled;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>While, with sharp snap and crackle,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beast-trodden branches strained behind me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My father's hand scarce snatching me</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Before the spring of crouching death!</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, naught of this the King could know,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>He only knew that, on that far-off morning,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When first I came before him, captive,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Among my captive brothers,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, as he lightly held, in idle fingers,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Above my unbowed head,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In equal poise</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Death's freedom</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or the servitude of life,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I clutched at life:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And cared but little that his lips</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Should curl, to see me, broken,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A slave among his slaves.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Yet, never slave of his was I;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Nor did I take my new life from his nod--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I ... I who could have torn</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The proud life out of him,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Before his guards could stay me...</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Had she not sat beside him, on her throne.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>And he, who knew not then,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Nor ever, till to-day,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Has known me aught but slave,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Remembering that time,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Spake doom of death to me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Idly, as to a slave:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And I await the end of night,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And dawn of death,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Even as a slave awaits...</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Nay! as the unvanquished veteran</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Awaits the hour of victory.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>In silence, wheels the night,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Star-marshalled, over dreaming Babylon;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And none in all the sleeping city stirs,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Save the cloaked sentries on the outer walls</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Who tread out patience 'twixt the gates of brass,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Numb with scarce-baffled slumber,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or, maybe, some unsleeping priest of Bel,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A lonely warder of eternity,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Who watches on the temple's seventh stage,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With the unslumbering gods.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Yet, may not she, the Queen,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Whose beauty, slaying my body,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Brings my soul to immortal birth,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Although she does not know</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of my last vigil on the peak of life--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Yet, may not she awaken, troubled</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>By strange, bewildering dreams,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With heart a little fearful of the dawn</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of day, yet unrevealed?</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>There is no sound at all,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Save only the cool plashing</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of fountains in the courtyard</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Without my lonely cell:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>For fate has granted to me</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>This last, least consolation of sweet sound</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Though in the plains I perish,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I shall hear the noise of waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The noise of running waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As I die.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My earliest lullaby shall sing</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My heart again to slumber.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, even now, I hear</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Stream-voices, long-forgotten, calling me</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Back to the hills of home;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, dreaming, I remember</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The little yellow brooks</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That ever, day and night,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Gush down the mountains singing,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Singing by the caves:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And hearkening unto them,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Once more a tiny baby,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A wee brown fist I dabble</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In the foaming cool,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Frothing round my wrist,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Spurting up my arm,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Spraying my warm face;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then again I chuckle,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As I see an empty gourd,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Fallen in the swirling waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Bobbing on the tawny eddies,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Swiftly out of sight.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>And yet most clearly to remembrance comes</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That far-off night, in early Spring,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When, loud with melted snow from Northern peaks,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The torrent roared and fretted;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>While, couched within the cavern,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The clamour kept me wakeful;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, even when I slept,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Tumbled, tumultuous, through my dreams,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And seemed to surge about me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As the brawl of armèd men.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And once I sprang from slumber,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Hot and startled,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Dreaming that I felt</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A warm breath on my cheek,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As if a jackal nuzzled me;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or some dread, slinking foe</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Made certain of my sleeping</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Before he plunged the steel.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But nothing stirred within the glimmering cavern,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Where, all around me, lay my sleeping kindred;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, when I stole without, with noiseless footsteps,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To rouse the smouldering watchfire into flame,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And cast fresh, crackling brushwood on the blaze,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I caught no glint of arms betwixt the branches,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Nor any sound or rumour, save</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The choral noise of cold hill-waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Cold hill-waters singing,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Singing to the stars.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And so I turned me from the brooding night;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, couched again upon the leopard-skins,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I slept, till dawn, in dream-untroubled sleep.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>I woke to see the cold sky kindling red,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beyond the mounded ash of the spent fire;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And lay, a moment, watching</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The pearly light, caught, trembling,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In dewy-beaded spiders' webs</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>About the cave-mouth woven.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Then I arose;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And left my kindred, slumbering--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My mother, by my father,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, at her breast, her youngest babe,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With dimpled fingers clutching at her bosom;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, all around them, lying</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Their sons and daughters, beautiful in sleep,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With parted lips,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And easy limbs outstretched</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Along the tumbled bedskins:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And while they slumbered yet in shades of night,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I sprang out naked</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Into eager dawn.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The sun had not yet scaled the eastern ridge:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And still the vales were hidden from my eyes</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>By snowy wreaths of swathing mist:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, high upon a scar</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That jutted sheer and stark,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In cold grey light,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>There stood an antelope,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With lifted muzzle snuffing the fresh day;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When scenting me afar,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>He plunged into the mist</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With one quick, startled bound:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, from the smoking vapour,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Arose a gentle pattering,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As, down the rocky trail,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The unseen herd went trotting</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Upon their leader's heels.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And from the clear horizon</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The exultant sun sprang god-like:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And on a little mound I stood,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With eager arms outstretched,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That, over my cold body,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The first warm golden beams</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of his life-giving light might fall.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And thus, awhile, I stood.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In radiant adoration tranced,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until I caught the call of waters;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, running downwards to the stream,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That plunged into a darkling pool,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Where, in the rock was scooped a wide, deep basin;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Upon the glassy brink,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A moment, I hung, shivering,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And gazing down through deeps of lucent shadow;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then I leapt headlong,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And felt the cloven waters</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Closing, icy-cold, above me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, again, with sobbing breath,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Battled to the light and air:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And I ran into the sunshine,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Shaking from my tingling limbs</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Showers of scintillating drops</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Over radiant, dewy beds</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of the snowy cyclamen,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And dark-red anemone,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Till my tawny body glowed</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With warm, ruddy, pulsing life.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then again I sought the stream,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And plunged; and now, more boldly,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I crossed the pool, with easy stroke;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And climbed the further crag;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, turning, plunged again.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And so, I dived and swam,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Till pangs of hunger pricked</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My idle fancy homeward:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And eagerly I climbed the hill;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When, not a sling's throw from the cavern,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Stooping to pluck a red anemone,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To prank the wet, black tangle of my hair,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I heard a shout;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And looking up,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I saw strange men</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With lifted spears</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Bear down on me:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And as I turned,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A javelin sang</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Above my shrinking shoulder,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And bit the ground before me.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, swift as light I sped,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until I reached the pool,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And leapt therein:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And he who pressed most hotly on my heels,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Fell stumbling after.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Still I never slackened,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Although I heard a floundering splash,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then the laughter of his comrades:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, as I swam for life,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Betwixt my thrusting heels,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Another spear that clove the crystal waters</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Glanced underneath my body,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And in the stream-bed quivered bolt upright,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Caught in a cleft of rock.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With frantic arm I struck</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Straight as a snake across the pool,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And climbed the further bank;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And plunging through deep brake,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Ran wildly onward,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Startling as I went</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A browsing herd of antelope,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That, bounding, fled before me down the valley</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And after them I raced,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As though the hunter,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Not the hunted,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until the chase sang in my blood,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And braced my straining thews.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I knew not if men followed,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Yet, on I sped, impetuously,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As speeds the fleet-foot onaga,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That breasts the windy morning,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With lifted head, and nostrils wide,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Exultant in his youth.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>So, on and ever on,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Scarce knowing why I ran--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Enough for me to feel</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Earth beaten back behind my heels,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And hear the loud air singing</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The blood-song in my ears:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Till, stumbling headlong over</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>An unseen, fallen branch,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I rolled in a deep bed of withered leaves;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And lay, full-length in shuddering ecstasy</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of hot, tumultuous blood that rioted</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Through every throbbing vein.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But when again, I breathed more easily,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And my wild, fluttering heart kept slower beat,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Hot-foot, my thoughts ran, wondering, backward:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And I arose and followed them</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With swift and stealthy pace,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until I reached the stream.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Along the bank I stole with wary step,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until I came to where the waters</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Narrowed, raging through a gorge,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Nigh the threshold of my home:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And across the thunderous flood,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>From crag to crag I leapt:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then I climbed a cedar,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>From whose close ambush I could watch</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Who came or went about the cavern-mouth.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I lay along a level branch:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, through the thick, dark screen,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I peered with eager eyes:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But no one crossed my sight.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The whole land lay before me, drowsing</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In deepest noonday slumber:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>No twig stirred in the breathless blaze;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And underneath the boughs no serpent rustled:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, in the earth and air,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Naught waked, save one lone eagle, nigh the sun,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With wings, unbaffled, beating</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Up the blue, unclouded heavens.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A dreamless, suave security</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Seemed brooding o'er the valley's golden slumber,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Whence rang or flashed no hint of lurking peril.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I dropped to earth,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And crouching low,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I stole yet nearer</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Through the brake:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Till, drawing nigh the cavern-mouth,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I heard the sound of half-hushed sobbing:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then I saw, within the gloom,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My mother and my sisters clustering round</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My father's body, lying stark and dead,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A spear-wound in his breast.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And as I crept to them, they did not hear me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Nor ever lift their heads;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, shuddering, crouched together,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With drooping breasts half-hid in falling hair,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>By that familiar form</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In such strange slumber bound.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Only the baby, on her shoulder slung,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Saw me, and crowed me greeting,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As I stooped down to touch my weeping mother,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Who, turning suddenly,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With wild tear-fevered eyes;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Arose with whispered warning;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, even then, too late.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Already, from behind,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Around my throat</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>An arm was flung;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And heavily I fell:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Yet, with a desperate wrench,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I slipped the clutch of my assailant:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And picking up a slingstone that lay handy,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I crashed it through his helm;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And dead he dropped.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And now upon me all his fellows thronged,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Like hounds about an antelope;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And gripped my naked limbs,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And dragged me down,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A struggling beast, among them:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And desperately I fought,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As fights the boar at bay,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When all the yelling pack,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With lathered lips, and white teeth gnashing,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Is closing in upon him;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And in his quivering flank, and gasping throat,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>He feels the fangs of death:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Till, overcome at last,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>They bound me hand and foot,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With knotted, leathern thongs;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And dragged me out to where, beneath the trees,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Trussed in like manner, with defiant eyes,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My brothers lay, already, side by side.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>They laid me in the shade;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And flicked my wincing spirit</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With laughter and light words:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>"Now is the roe-buck taken!"</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Then another,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>On whose dark, sullen face there burned a livid weal</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>"A buck in flight's a panther brought to bay!"</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then his fellow:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>"True enough! and yet,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>For such young thews they give good gold--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>They give good gold in Babylon!"</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, laughing thus, they left us,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To lie through hours of aching silence,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until, at length, the cool of evening fell;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When they returned from slumber;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And loosed the ankle-cords that we might stand;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And bade our mother feed us;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And she, with tender fingers, held</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The milk-bowl to our parching lips;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And thrust dried dates betwixt our teeth;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And wept, to see us standing there,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With helpless hands, before her.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Then, bringing out their mules, they saddled them;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And tied us to the girths on either hand.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>They drove my weeping sisters from the cavern;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And sought to tear my mother from her home;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But she escaped them;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And they let her bide</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Amid the ruins of her life,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Whose light had dropped, so suddenly,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>From out the highest heavens:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, when I turned to look on her,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And win from her a last farewell,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I saw her, sitting desolate betwixt</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Her silent husband and her wailing babe,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With still, strange eyes,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That stared upon the dead, unseeing,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>While her own children went from her,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Scarce knowing that they left her, nevermore</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To look upon her face.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>Thus, we set out, as over</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The darkening, Southern crags</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The new moon's keen, curved blade was thrust:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My sisters trooping on before us,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Like a drove of young gazelles,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Which, in the dead of night,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With pards in leash, and torches flaring,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The hunters have encompassed.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>They moved with timid steps,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And little runs;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Stumbling, with stifled cries;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And starting, panic-shot,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>From every lurking shadow--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Behind them, terror's lifted lash:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Before them, ever crouching,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The horror of the unknown night--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>While, as they moved before us,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The moonlight shivered off their shrinking shoulders</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And naked, glancing limbs,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In shimmering, strange beauty.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And closely on their heels,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I, with my brothers, foremost in the file,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Marched, tethered 'twixt the plodding beasts,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Whose stolid riders sat,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Each with his javelin on the pummel couched,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In watchful silence, with dark eyes alert.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And once, nigh driven crazy</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>By the tugging of the thongs,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I sprang into the air,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As down a rocky steep we scrambled;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And strove to burst the galling bonds,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or hurl my guards on one another;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, all too sure of foot, the beasts,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And too securely girths and cords</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Held me, and I stumbled.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Instantly a thong</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Struck my wincing shoulders,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Blow on thudding blow.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I bit my lips; and strode on silently;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Nor fought again for freedom.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>So on we journeyed through the night,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And down familiar mountain-tracks,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Through deep, dark forest,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Ever down and down;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Fording the streams, whose moon-bright waters flowed,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In eddies of delicious, aching cool,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>About our weary thighs.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, once, when in mid-torrent,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That swirled, girth-high about the plunging beasts,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A startled otter, glancing</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Before their very hoofs,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Affrighted them; and, rearing,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With blind and desperate floundering,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>They nearly dragged us down to death:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, ere we righted,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With a fearful cry,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My eldest sister from the bevy broke;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And struck down-stream</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With wild arm lashing desperately,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until the current caught her;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And she sank, to rise no more.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And on again we travelled,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Down through the darkling woodlands:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And once I saw green, burning eyes,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Where, on a low-hung bough,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A night-black panther crouched,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As though to pounce upon my sisters;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, the sudden crack of whips,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Startling him, he snarled;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And turned with lashing tail,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Crashing through dense brushwood.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>When, once, again we came unto a clearing,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The night was near its noon:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And all the vales that lay before us</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Were filled with moving, moonlit mists,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That seemed phantasmal waters</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of that enchanted world,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Where we, in dreams, sail over still lagoons,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Throughout eternal night,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And under unknown stars.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Still, on we fared, unresting,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until the low moon paled;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When, halting on a mountain-spur,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>We first looked down on Babylon,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Far in the dreaming West,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A cluster of dim towers,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Scarce visible to wearied eyes.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>We camped within a sheltering cedar-grove;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And all the day, beneath the level boughs,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Upon the agelong-bedded needles lay,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Half-slumbering, with fleeting, fretful dreams</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That could not quite forget the chafing cords,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That held our arms in aching numbness:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, ere the noon, in sounder sleep I sank,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Dreaming I floated on a still, deep pool,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beneath dark, overhanging branches;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And seemed to feel upon my cheek</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The cool caress of waters;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>While, far above me, through the night of trees,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Noon glimmered faintly as the glint of stars.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As thus I lay, in indolent ecstasy,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>O'er me, suddenly, the waters</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Curved, and I was dragged,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Down and down,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Through gurgling deeps</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of swirling, drowning darkness...</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When I awoke in terror;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And strove to sit upright;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, tautly, with a jerk,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The thongs that held me to my brothers,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Dragged me back to earth.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>Awhile I lay, with staring eyes, awake,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Watching a big, grey spider, crouched overhead,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In ambush 'neath a twig, beside her web,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Oft sallying out, to bind yet more securely,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The half-entangled flies.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then, once more, I slumbered;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And dreamed a face leant over me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>More fair than any face</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My waking eyes had ever looked upon.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Its beauty burned above me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Not dusky like my sisters' faces,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But pale as the wan moon,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Reflected in a flood</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of darkly flowing waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or as the creaming froth,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That, born amid the thunder of the fall,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Floats on the river's bosom in the sunshine,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Bubble after bubble,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Perishing in air.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>So, a moment, over me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With frail and fleeting glimmer</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of strange elusive, evanescent light,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The holy vision hovered.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And yet, whenever, with a fervent longing,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I sought to look into the darkling eyes,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The face would fade from me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As foam caught in an eddy:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until, at last, I wakened,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, wondering, saw a pale star gleaming</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Betwixt the cedar-branches.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And soon our captors stirred:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And we arose, to see</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The walls and towers of Babylon, dark</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Against the clear rose of the afterglow,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Already in the surge of shadows caught,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As night, beneath us, slowly Westward swept,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Flooding the dreaming plain that lay before us,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Vast, limitless, bewildering,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And strange to mountain-eyes.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As down the slope we went,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And when, at last, we left behind</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The hills and singing waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A vague, oppressive fear</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of those dim, silent leagues of level land,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Fell on me; and I almost seemed</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To bear upon my shoulders</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The vaster dome of overwhelming night;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, trembling like a child,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I looked askance at my two captors,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As they rode on in heedless silence,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Their swarthy faces sharp</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Against the lucent sky.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then, once more,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The old, familiar watchfires of the stars</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Brought courage to my bosom;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And the young moon's brilliant horn</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Was exalted in the sky:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And soon, the glooming wilderness</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Awoke with glittering waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As a friendly wind sang unto me</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Among the swaying reeds:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>While, cloud on cloud,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The snowy flocks of pelican</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Before our coming rose;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, as they swerved to Southward,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The moonlight shivered off their flashing pinions.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>So, on we marched, till dawn, across the plain;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, on and on,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beneath the waxing moon,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Each night we travelled Westward;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until, at last, we halted</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>By the broad dull-gleaming flood</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of mighty, roaring Tigris;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And aroused from midnight slumber</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The surly, grumbling ferrymen,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And crossed the swollen waters</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Upon the great, skin rafts:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Then on again we fared,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until the far, dim towers soared in the dawnlight</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And we encamped beside a stream,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beneath dry, rustling palms.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And heavily I slumbered:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And only wakened once, at noon,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When, lifting up my head,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I saw the towers of Babylon, burning blue,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Far off, in the blind heat:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And slept again, till sunset,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When we took our Westward course</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Along the low bank of a broad canal,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That glimmered wanly 'neath a moonless sky.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Higher, and higher still,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As we drew slowly nearer,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Arose the vasty walls and serried towers,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That seemed to thrust among the stars,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And on embattled summits bear the night,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Unbowed beneath their burden,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As easily as, with unruffled brows,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And limber, upright bodies,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The village-daughters carry</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>At eve the brimming pitchers,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Poised upon their heads.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And when, above us, the wide-looming walls</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Shut out the Western stars;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beneath their shade, at midnight, we encamped,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To await till dawn should open</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The city gates for us.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That night we did not sleep,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, crouched upon the ground,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>We watched the moon rise over Babylon,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Till, far behind us, o'er the glittering waste,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Was flung the wall's huge shadow,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And the moving shades of sentries,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Who, unseen above our heads,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Paced through the night incessantly.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Thus long we sat, hushed with awed expectation,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And gazing o'er the plain that we had travelled,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As, gradually, the climbing moon,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Escaping from the clustering towers,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Revealed far-gleaming waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And the sharp, shrill cry of owls,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Sweeping by on noiseless plumes,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Assailed the vasty silence,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Shivering off like darts</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>From some impenetrable shield.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, as we waited,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Sometimes, fearfully,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I gazed up those stupendous, soaring walls</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of that great, slumbering city, wondering</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>What doom behind the bastioned ramparts slept,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>What destiny, beneath the brooding night,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Awaited me beyond the brazen gates.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, naught the blind, indifferent stars revealed,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Though towards the long night's ending,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Half-dazed with gazing up that aching height,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A drowsiness fell over me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And in a restless waking-trance I lay,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Dreaming that Life and Death before me stood.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, as each thrust towards me a shrouded cup,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Implacable silence bade me choose and drink.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, as I stretched a blind, uncertain hand</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To take the cup of death,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I wakened, and dawn trembled,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>At last, beyond the Eastern hills,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, star by star, night failed;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And eagerly the sun leapt up the sky,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, as his flashing rays</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Smote kindling towers and flaming gates of brass,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Across the reedy moat</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A clattering drawbridge fell,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And wide the glittering portals slowly swung:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And there came streaming out in slow procession</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A sleepy caravan of slouching camels,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Groaning and grumbling as they strode along</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beneath their mountainous burdens,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Upon whose swaying summits,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Impassively, the blue-robed merchants sat.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>They passed us slowly by,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then we took the bridge,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, while our captors parleyed with the guards,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Who stood, on either hand,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With naked swords,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I turned my head,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And saw for the last time, far Eastward,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The cold, snow-brilliant peaks,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beyond my dim, blue, native hills.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, as I looked, my thoughts flew homeward,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And I, one dreaming moment,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Stood by my mourning mother in the cavern</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of desolation, looking on the dead.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then, between the brazen gate-posts,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And underneath the brazen lintel,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>At last we entered Babylon.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Before us, yet another wall arose,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, turning sharply</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Down a narrow way,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The living breath of heaven seemed shut from us</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As though beneath the beetling crags</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of some deep mountain-gorge--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>By cliffs of wall, on either hand,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That soared up to the narrow sky,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Which with dim lustre lit</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The shimmering surface of enamelled brick,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Whereon, through giant groves,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Blue-coated hunters chased the boar,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or 'loosed red-tasselled falcon</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>After flying crane.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But soon we reached another gate,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Sword-guarded, and we entered,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And plunged into the traffic</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of clamorous merchantmen,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Speeding their business ere the heat of day.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And as we jostled, slowly,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Through bewildering bazaars,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The porters and the idler wayfarers</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>All turned to look upon our shame,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With cold, unpitying eyes,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And indolent, gaping mouths,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or jested with our captors,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until we left the busier thoroughfares,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And walked through groves of cypress and of ilex,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Where not a sound or rumour troubled</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The silence of the dark-plumed boughs</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And glimmering deeps of peace,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Save only the cool spurt of waters</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That, from a myriad unseen jets,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Fretted the crystal airs of morning,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And fell in frolic showers</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of twinkling, rainbow drops,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That plashed in unseen basins;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And through the blaze of almond-orchards,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Tremulous with blossom</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That flickered in a rosy, silken snow</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of falling petals over us,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And wreathed about our feet</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In soft and scented drifts;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beneath pomegranate trees in young, green leaf,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And through vast gardens, glowing with strange flowers,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Such as no April kindled into bloom</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Among the valleys of my native hills.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>We came unto a court of many fountains,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Where, leaping off their jaded mules,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Our captors loosed the thongs that held us,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But left our wrists still bound.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And one with great clay pitchers came,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And over our hot bodies, travel-stained,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Poured out cool, cleansing waters</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In a gurgling, crystal stream,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And flung coarse robes of indigo</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>About our naked shoulders.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And here we left behind us</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The maidens and the younger boys,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And passing through a gateway,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Came out upon a busy wharf,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Where, southward, midway through the city,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The broad Euphrates flows,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>His dark flood thronged with merchant-dhows,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And fishing-boats of reed and bitumen,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Piled high with glistering barbel, freshly-caught;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And foreign craft, with many-coloured sails,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And laden deep with precious merchandise,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That, over wide, bewildering waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Across the perilous world,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The adventurous, dark-bearded mariners,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Who swear by unknown gods in alien tongues,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Bring ever to the gates of Babylon.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>We crossed the drawbridge, round whose granite piers</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Swirled strong, Spring-swollen waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Loud and tawny,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, through great brazen portals,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Passed within the palace gates,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When first I saw afar the hanging-gardens,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Arch on arch,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And tier on tier,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Against a glowing sky.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Two strapping Nubians, like young giants</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Hewn from blue-black marble</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>By some immortal hand in immemorial ages,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Led us slowly onward.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The dappled pard-skins, slung across their shoulders,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Scarcely hid the ox-like thews,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beneath the dark skin rippling,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As they strode along before us.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Through courts of alabaster,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And painted corridors,</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>And chambers fair with flowery tapestries</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>They led us, wondering, till at last we came</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Into a vast, dim hall of glimmering gold,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The end of all our journeying.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, as we halted on the threshold,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My eyes could see but little for a moment,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In the dusky, heavy air,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Through the ceaseless cloud of incense,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Rising from the smouldering braziers</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To the gold, grey-clouded dome,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Tingling strangely in my nostrils,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As I came from morning airs;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Then slowly filling them with drowsy fume,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When, looking up with half-dazed eyes,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I saw the King upon his golden throne:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And through my body</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Raged rebellious blood,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In baffled riot beating</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>At my corded wrists,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As if to burst the galling bonds,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That I might hurl that lean, swart face,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>So idly turning towards us,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With thin curled lips,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And cold, incurious eyes,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To headlong death--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Yea! even though I tumbled</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The towers of Babylon round about my head.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, when our captors bowed their foreheads low,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Obsequious to the throne,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I stood upright,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And gazed my loathing on that listless form--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The gay, embroidered robe,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The golden cap, that prankt the crispèd locks,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The short, square beard, new-oiled and barbered--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, in a flash,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A heavy blow</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Fell on my head,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And struck me to my knees</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Before the sleek, indifferent king.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then, on either hand,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With gripping palms upon my shoulders set,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The Nubians towered above me</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Like mighty men of stone.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And savagely I struggled,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Half-stunned, to rise again;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When, as I vainly battled</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In their unrelenting clutch,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My eyes lit for the first time on the Queen,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Who sat upon the daïs, by her lord</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Half-shadowed, on a throne of ivory,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And all the hate died in me, as I saw</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The face that hovered over me in dream,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When I had slept beneath the low-boughed cedar:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The moon-pale brows, o'er which the clustered hair</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Hung like the smoke of torches, ruddy-gold,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Against a canopy of peacock plumes:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The deep brown, burning eyes,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>From which the soul looked on me in fierce pity.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, as I gazed on that exultant beauty,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The hunter and the slayer of men</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Was slain within me instantly,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And I forgot the mountains and my home;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My desolate mother, and my father's death;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My captive sisters ... and the thronèd King!</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I was as one, that moment,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>New-born into the world</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Full-limbed and thewed,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Yet, with the wondering heart</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of earth-bewildered childhood.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, unto me, it seemed</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That, as the Queen looked down on me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>There stole into her eyes</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Some dim remembrance of old dreams,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That in their brown depths flickered</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With strange, elusive light,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Like stars that tremble in still forest-pools.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>One spake--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I scarce knew whom, nor cared--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And bade me choose,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Before the throne,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Between a life of slavery,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or merciful, swift death--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Death, that but a moment since,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I would have dragged, exulting, on me--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And with my eyes still set on the Queen's face,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I answered:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>"I will serve":</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And scarcely heeded that my wrists were loosed.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>And, huddled in a stifling hut,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That night, among my fellows,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I could not sleep at all:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But gazed, wild-eyed, till dawn upon that face,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Which hovered o'er me, like the moon of dreams;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And seemed to draw the wandering tides of life</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In one vast wave, which ever strove</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To climb the heavens wherein she moved,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That it might break in triumphing foam about her.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Not then, nor ever afterwards,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Was I a slave, among my fellow-slaves,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But one, who, with mean drudgery,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And daily penance serves</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Before a holy altar,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That, sometimes, as he labours, his glad eyes</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>May catch a gleam of the immortal light</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Within the secret shrine;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Yea! and, maybe, shall look, one day, with trembling,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>On the bright-haired, imperishable god.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, even when, day after day,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I bore the big reed-baskets, laden</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With wet clay, digged beyond the Western moat,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Although I seemed to tread,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As treads the ox that turns the water-wheel,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A blindfold round of servitude,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My quenchless vision ever burned before me:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And when, in after days, I fed</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The roaring oven-furnaces;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And toiled by them through sweltering days,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Though over me, at times, would come</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Great longing for the hill-tops,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And the noise of torrent-waters:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or when, more skilled, I moulded</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The damp clay into bricks;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And spread the colour and the glaze;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And in strength-giving heat of glowing kilns,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I baked them durable,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Clean-shaped, and meet for service:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My vision flamed yet brighter;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And unto me it seemed</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As if my gross and useless clay were burned</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In a white ecstasy of lustral fire,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That, in the fashioning of the house of love,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I might serve perfectly the builder's need.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Thus, many months, I laboured;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Till, one day, at the noontide hour of rest,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I lay; and with a sharpened reed--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As temple-scribes write down the holy lore</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>On tablets of wet clay--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>On the moist earth beside me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I limned a young fawn, cropping</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A bunch of tender, overhanging leaves.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, as I slowly drew,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I dreamt a little sadly of the days,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When I, too, roamed, untethered,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And drinking in, unquestioning,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The sunshine and the air,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And all the rapture of the earth that turns,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>New every morning to the wondering sun,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Refashioned in still nights of starry dews:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But one, the while, unseen of me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Watched my unconscious hand, approving:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And I was set, next morning,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Among the craftsmen, who so deftly limned</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The hunts and battles for the palace walls.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, happily, with them I lived</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A life of loving labour, for each line</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Flowed from the knowledge of my heart:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I drew the startled ostrich</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Fleeing from the far-flung noose:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The brindled lynx; the onaga</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In dewy-plashing flight;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The bristling boar, at bay,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Crouched in a deadly ring of threatening spears,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With streaming nostrils, and red eyes ablaze;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The striped hyæna; the gaunt, green-eyed wolf;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The skulking jackal; the grey, brush-tailed fox;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The hunting leopard and the antelope,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In mid-chase tense,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With every thew astrain;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The dappled panther; the brown-eyed gazelle,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Butting with black horns through the tangled brake</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The nimble hare, alert, with pricked-up ears;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The tiger, crouched, with yellow eyes afire;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The shaggy mountain-goat,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Perched on the utmost crag,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Against the afterglow of lucent ruby,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or, poised with bunching hoofs</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In mid-spring over a dark, yawning chasm;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or the black stallion, with his tameless troop,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Fording a mountain-river in the dawn.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, sometimes, as we toiled,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A terrible fleeting rapture</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Would come upon me, when the Queen</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Passed by us with her maidens;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or paused, a moment, gazing,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With tranced and kindling eyes upon our labours:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But never did I dare, at any time,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To lift my eyes to hers,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And look, as soul on soul,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As on the day her beauty brought to birth</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The strange new life within me.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In silence she would ever leave us;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And ever with her passing perished</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The light and colour of my work;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>So that my heart failed, daunted by that glimpse</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of the ever-living beauty.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, sometimes, I would carve in ruddy teak,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or ivory, from the Indian merchants bought,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or in the rare, black basalt, little beasts</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To please the idle fancies of the King;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or model in wet clay, and cast in bronze,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Great bulls and lions for the palace-courts;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or carve him seals of lapis-lazuli,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of jasper, amethyst and serpentine,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Chalcedony--carnelian, chrysoprase,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Agate, sardonyx, and chalcedonyx--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Green jade, and alabaster;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or cut in stones that flashed and flickered</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Like a glancing kingfisher,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or, in the sun-filled amber,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The kite with broad wings spread,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Or little fluttering doves that pecked</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A golden bunch of dates:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then of these in settings of fine gold</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Made fillets, rings and ear-rings.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>Thus, one day,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Dreaming, as ever, of the Queen,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I wrought a golden serpent for her hair:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And when I brought it to the King, next morn,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Where he sat brooding over chess,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>He bade me bear it to the Queen, myself,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And so, I went unto her, where she sat,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Among her singing maidens, at the loom,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Weaving a silken web of Tyrian dye.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I laid the trinket at her feet, in silence:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And she arose, and set it in her hair,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Whose living lustre far outshone</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The cold, dead metal I had fashioned,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As she stood before me, dreaming,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In her robe of flowing blue;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Then looked a moment on me with kind eyes.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And though she spoke no word,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I turned, and fled, in trembling,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Before the light that shivered through me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And struck my soul with shuddering ecstasy:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, still, through many days,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Although I did not look again</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Upon those dreaming eyes,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Their visionary light</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Within my soul, revealed eternity.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>Thus, have the mortal years</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Flowed onward to the perfect end--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>This day of days,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That never night shall quench,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Nor darkness vanquish:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, at dawn,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I die.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>And yet, this morning, as I slowly climbed</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The steep, ascending stages</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That lead up to the hanging-gardens--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Where, tier on tier,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The great brick arches bore</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Their April wealth of blossoms,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Plumed with palm and dusky cypress--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I little knew that I</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Who came to carve a garland</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Round a fountain's porphry basin,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Should scale so soon the utmost peak of life.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Throughout the morn I toiled,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until an hour ere noon--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>For no one, save the King and Queen,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>May walk in those high gardens, after midday--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When, underneath a cypress shade,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I paused, a moment, resting;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And looking down upon the basking city,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beneath me slumbering deeply--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Garden on garden glowing, grove on grove,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Like some green fabric, shot with myriad hues,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And chequered with white clusters of flat roofs,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Aquiver in clear heat:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then I gazed up through the aching azure,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>At the restless kites that hover</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Ever over Babylon:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, as I watched one broad-winged bird that hung</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Above the seven-coloured pyramid</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of Bel's great temple,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With wide pinions spread,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As though it kept eternal vigil over</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The golden image in the golden shrine,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I thought of eagles poised</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Above the peaks of glittering snows,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Beyond the Eastern plains.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Half-dreaming, thus, I lay,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Lulled by the tinkling waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Till, unawares, sleep slowly overcame me;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And noonday drifted by:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And still, I slept, unheeding:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, in my sleep,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I looked on Beauty in a quiet place</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of forest gloom and immemorial dream:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When, something rousing me from slumber,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With waking eyes that yet seemed dream-enchanted,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I looked upon the Queen,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Where, in a secret close,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Set thickly round with screens of yew and ilex,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>She stood upon the dark, broad brim</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Of a wide granite basin, gazing down,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With dreaming eyes, into the glooming cool,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Unraimented, save of the flickering gleam,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Reflected from the lucent waters,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>That flowed before her silently:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And slowly, from her feet,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The cold light rippled up her body, till,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Entangled in the meshes of her hair,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>It flooded the calm rapture of her face:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>When, dreaming still, she lifted up her eyes,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Unseeing; and I looked upon her soul,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Unveiled, in naked immortality,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Untrammelled by the trappings of brief time,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And cloaks of circumstance.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>How long I looked upon the perfect beauty,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I cannot tell--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Each moment, flowing to eternity,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Bearing me further from time's narrow shores;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Though, yet, a little while,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>From those unshadowed deeps time sought to hold me.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>Suddenly, I felt</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>A ghostly arrow pierce my life;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And I leapt up, and turning,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I saw the King beside me,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With steely, glittering eyes</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Shooting barbed anger,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Though he coldly spake,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With evil, curling lips:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>"Slave, thou art dead!"</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And yet I did not quail:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But, looking 'twixt his brows,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I answered: and he blenched before my words:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>"Nay!  I have seen:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>"And am newborn, a King!"</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And then his craven fingers</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Went quaking to his wagging beard,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As if he felt my clutch upon his throat:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Yet, though, with one quick blow,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I might have hurled him down to death,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I never stirred:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And, eyeing me, he summoned</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The negro-eunuchs, who kept watch below:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>But I, ere they could spring up the first stage,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Went forth to meet them;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And they bound my wrists.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>And so, down from the hills, my life has flowed,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Until, at fullest flood, it meets the sea.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With calm and unregretful heart, I wait</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Till dawn shall loose the arrow from the bow.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I, who, with eager, faltering hand have sought</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>To fashion a little beauty, in the end,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Have looked on the perfect beauty, and I die--</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Even as the priest, who, in the heart of night,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Trembling before the thunder-riven shrine,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Looks on the face of God, and perishes.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>I die...</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And yet, maybe, when earth lies heavily</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Upon the time-o'ertoppled towers,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And tumbled walls, and broken gates of brass;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And the winds whisper one another:</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>"Where, Oh! where is Babylon?"</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>In the dim underworld of dreaming shades,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>My soul shall seek out beauty</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And look, once more,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Upon the unveiled vision...</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And not die.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="line-block outermost">
-<div class="line"><span>Night passes: and already in the court,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Amid the plash of fountains,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>There sounds the pad of naked feet approaching.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>With slow, deliberate pace,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>As though they trod out all my perished years,</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>The Nubians come, to lead me out to death.</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Slowly the great door opens;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>And clearer comes the call of waters;</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Cool airs are on my brow ...</span></div>
-<div class="line"><span>Lo! ... in the East, the dawn.</span></div>
-</div>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em">
-</div>
-<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED.</span></p>
-<div class="vspace" style="height: 6em">
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-.. -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-

-

-.. meta::

-   :PG.Id: 42051

-   :PG.Title: Akra the Slave

-   :PG.Released: 2013-02-08

-   :PG.Rights: Public Domain

-   :PG.Producer: Al Haines

-   :DC.Creator: Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

-   :DC.Title: Akra the Slave

-   :DC.Language: en

-   :DC.Created: 1910

-   :coverpage: images/img-cover.jpg

-

-==============

-AKRA THE SLAVE

-==============

-

-.. clearpage::

-

-.. pgheader::

-

-.. container:: coverpage

-

-   .. vspace:: 3

-

-   .. _`Cover`:

-

-   .. figure:: images/img-cover.jpg

-      :align: center

-      :alt: Cover

-

-      Cover

-

-   .. vspace:: 4

-

-.. container:: titlepage center white-space-pre-line

-

-   .. class:: x-large

-

-      AKRA THE SLAVE

-

-   .. vspace:: 2

-

-   .. class:: medium

-

-      BY

-      WILFRID WILSON GIBSON

-

-   .. vspace:: 3

-

-   .. class:: center medium

-

-      LONDON

-      ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET

-      MCMX

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-|  *Six years ago, I wrote this story down,*

-|  *While yet the light of Eastern skies*

-|  *Was in my eyes,*

-|  *And still my heart, aglow with memories*

-|  *Of sun-enraptured seas,*

-|  *And that old sea-girt town.*

-|  *Where, down dark alleys of enchanted night,*

-|  *We stole, until we came*

-|  *To where the great dome glimmered white.*

-|  *And every minaret,*

-|  *A shaft of pearly flame,*

-|  *Beneath the cloudy moon...*

-|

-|  *Six years ago!*

-|  *Ah! soon--too soon,*

-|  *Our tale, too, will be told:*

-|  *And yet, and yet,*

-|  *From this old Eastern tale we know,*

-|  *Love's story never can grow old,*

-|  *Till Love, himself, forget.*

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. class:: center x-large

-

-   AKRA THE SLAVE

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-|  He thought to see me tremble

-|  And totter as an oar-snapt reed,

-|  When he spake death to me--

-|  My courage, toppled in the dust,

-|  Even as the head of cactus

-|  The camel-keeper slashes

-|  That his beasts may browse, unscathed,

-|  The succulent, wounded green.

-|  He thought to have me, broken,

-|  And grovelling at his feet;

-|  Mouthing and mumbling to his sandal-ties,

-|  In stammering dread of death--

-|  Aye! even as a king,

-|  Who, having from death's hand,

-|  Received his crown and kingdom,

-|  For ever treads in terror of the hour

-|  When death shall jog his elbow,

-|  Twitch the purple from his shoulders,

-|  And claim again the borrowed crown.

-|  But, little need have I to fear

-|  The crouching, lean camp-follower,

-|  Unto whose ever-gaping maw,

-|  Day after day, I flung

-|  The spoils of bow and arrow,

-|  Ere I was taken captive--

-|  I, who have often, at my mother's breast,

-|  Awakened in the night-time,

-|  To see death leering on me from the cave-mouth,

-|  A gaunt and slinking shape

-|  That snuffed the dying embers,

-|  Blotting out the friendly stars--

-|  I, who, a scarce-weaned boy,

-|  Have toddled, gay and fearless,

-|  Down the narrow jungle-track,

-|  Through bodeful forest-darkness, panther-eyed;

-|  And have felt cold snakes uncoiling

-|  And gliding 'neath my naked sole,

-|  From clammy slumber startled;

-|  While, with sharp snap and crackle,

-|  Beast-trodden branches strained behind me,

-|  My father's hand scarce snatching me

-|  Before the spring of crouching death!

-|  But, naught of this the King could know,

-|  He only knew that, on that far-off morning,

-|  When first I came before him, captive,

-|  Among my captive brothers,

-|  And, as he lightly held, in idle fingers,

-|  Above my unbowed head,

-|  In equal poise

-|  Death's freedom

-|  Or the servitude of life,

-|  I clutched at life:

-|  And cared but little that his lips

-|  Should curl, to see me, broken,

-|  A slave among his slaves.

-|  Yet, never slave of his was I;

-|  Nor did I take my new life from his nod--

-|  I ... I who could have torn

-|  The proud life out of him,

-|  Before his guards could stay me...

-|  Had she not sat beside him, on her throne.

-

-|  And he, who knew not then,

-|  Nor ever, till to-day,

-|  Has known me aught but slave,

-|  Remembering that time,

-|  Spake doom of death to me,

-|  Idly, as to a slave:

-|  And I await the end of night,

-|  And dawn of death,

-|  Even as a slave awaits...

-|  Nay! as the unvanquished veteran

-|  Awaits the hour of victory.

-

-|  In silence, wheels the night,

-|  Star-marshalled, over dreaming Babylon;

-|  And none in all the sleeping city stirs,

-|  Save the cloaked sentries on the outer walls

-|  Who tread out patience 'twixt the gates of brass,

-|  Numb with scarce-baffled slumber,

-|  Or, maybe, some unsleeping priest of Bel,

-|  A lonely warder of eternity,

-|  Who watches on the temple's seventh stage,

-|  With the unslumbering gods.

-|  Yet, may not she, the Queen,

-|  Whose beauty, slaying my body,

-|  Brings my soul to immortal birth,

-|  Although she does not know

-|  Of my last vigil on the peak of life--

-|  Yet, may not she awaken, troubled

-|  By strange, bewildering dreams,

-|  With heart a little fearful of the dawn

-|  Of day, yet unrevealed?

-

-|  There is no sound at all,

-|  Save only the cool plashing

-|  Of fountains in the courtyard

-|  Without my lonely cell:

-|  For fate has granted to me

-|  This last, least consolation of sweet sound

-|  Though in the plains I perish,

-|  I shall hear the noise of waters,

-|  The noise of running waters,

-|  As I die.

-|  My earliest lullaby shall sing

-|  My heart again to slumber.

-|  And, even now, I hear

-|  Stream-voices, long-forgotten, calling me

-|  Back to the hills of home;

-|  And, dreaming, I remember

-|  The little yellow brooks

-|  That ever, day and night,

-|  Gush down the mountains singing,

-|  Singing by the caves:

-|  And hearkening unto them,

-|  Once more a tiny baby,

-|  A wee brown fist I dabble

-|  In the foaming cool,

-|  Frothing round my wrist,

-|  Spurting up my arm,

-|  Spraying my warm face;

-|  And then again I chuckle,

-|  As I see an empty gourd,

-|  Fallen in the swirling waters,

-|  Bobbing on the tawny eddies,

-|  Swiftly out of sight.

-

-|  And yet most clearly to remembrance comes

-|  That far-off night, in early Spring,

-|  When, loud with melted snow from Northern peaks,

-|  The torrent roared and fretted;

-|  While, couched within the cavern,

-|  The clamour kept me wakeful;

-|  And, even when I slept,

-|  Tumbled, tumultuous, through my dreams,

-|  And seemed to surge about me,

-|  As the brawl of armèd men.

-|  And once I sprang from slumber,

-|  Hot and startled,

-|  Dreaming that I felt

-|  A warm breath on my cheek,

-|  As if a jackal nuzzled me;

-|  Or some dread, slinking foe

-|  Made certain of my sleeping

-|  Before he plunged the steel.

-|  But nothing stirred within the glimmering cavern,

-|  Where, all around me, lay my sleeping kindred;

-|  And, when I stole without, with noiseless footsteps,

-|  To rouse the smouldering watchfire into flame,

-|  And cast fresh, crackling brushwood on the blaze,

-|  I caught no glint of arms betwixt the branches,

-|  Nor any sound or rumour, save

-|  The choral noise of cold hill-waters,

-|  Cold hill-waters singing,

-|  Singing to the stars.

-|  And so I turned me from the brooding night;

-|  And, couched again upon the leopard-skins,

-|  I slept, till dawn, in dream-untroubled sleep.

-

-|  I woke to see the cold sky kindling red,

-|  Beyond the mounded ash of the spent fire;

-|  And lay, a moment, watching

-|  The pearly light, caught, trembling,

-|  In dewy-beaded spiders' webs

-|  About the cave-mouth woven.

-|  Then I arose;

-|  And left my kindred, slumbering--

-|  My mother, by my father,

-|  And, at her breast, her youngest babe,

-|  With dimpled fingers clutching at her bosom;

-|  And, all around them, lying

-|  Their sons and daughters, beautiful in sleep,

-|  With parted lips,

-|  And easy limbs outstretched

-|  Along the tumbled bedskins:

-|  And while they slumbered yet in shades of night,

-|  I sprang out naked

-|  Into eager dawn.

-|  The sun had not yet scaled the eastern ridge:

-|  And still the vales were hidden from my eyes

-|  By snowy wreaths of swathing mist:

-|  But, high upon a scar

-|  That jutted sheer and stark,

-|  In cold grey light,

-|  There stood an antelope,

-|  With lifted muzzle snuffing the fresh day;

-|  When scenting me afar,

-|  He plunged into the mist

-|  With one quick, startled bound:

-|  And, from the smoking vapour,

-|  Arose a gentle pattering,

-|  As, down the rocky trail,

-|  The unseen herd went trotting

-|  Upon their leader's heels.

-|  And from the clear horizon

-|  The exultant sun sprang god-like:

-|  And on a little mound I stood,

-|  With eager arms outstretched,

-|  That, over my cold body,

-|  The first warm golden beams

-|  Of his life-giving light might fall.

-|  And thus, awhile, I stood.

-|  In radiant adoration tranced,

-|  Until I caught the call of waters;

-|  And, running downwards to the stream,

-|  That plunged into a darkling pool,

-|  Where, in the rock was scooped a wide, deep basin;

-|  Upon the glassy brink,

-|  A moment, I hung, shivering,

-|  And gazing down through deeps of lucent shadow;

-|  And then I leapt headlong,

-|  And felt the cloven waters

-|  Closing, icy-cold, above me,

-|  And, again, with sobbing breath,

-|  Battled to the light and air:

-|  And I ran into the sunshine,

-|  Shaking from my tingling limbs

-|  Showers of scintillating drops

-|  Over radiant, dewy beds

-|  Of the snowy cyclamen,

-|  And dark-red anemone,

-|  Till my tawny body glowed

-|  With warm, ruddy, pulsing life.

-|  And then again I sought the stream,

-|  And plunged; and now, more boldly,

-|  I crossed the pool, with easy stroke;

-|  And climbed the further crag;

-|  And, turning, plunged again.

-|  And so, I dived and swam,

-|  Till pangs of hunger pricked

-|  My idle fancy homeward:

-|  And eagerly I climbed the hill;

-|  When, not a sling's throw from the cavern,

-|  Stooping to pluck a red anemone,

-|  To prank the wet, black tangle of my hair,

-|  I heard a shout;

-|  And looking up,

-|  I saw strange men

-|  With lifted spears

-|  Bear down on me:

-|  And as I turned,

-|  A javelin sang

-|  Above my shrinking shoulder,

-|  And bit the ground before me.

-|  But, swift as light I sped,

-|  Until I reached the pool,

-|  And leapt therein:

-|  And he who pressed most hotly on my heels,

-|  Fell stumbling after.

-|  Still I never slackened,

-|  Although I heard a floundering splash,

-|  And then the laughter of his comrades:

-|  And, as I swam for life,

-|  Betwixt my thrusting heels,

-|  Another spear that clove the crystal waters

-|  Glanced underneath my body,

-|  And in the stream-bed quivered bolt upright,

-|  Caught in a cleft of rock.

-|  With frantic arm I struck

-|  Straight as a snake across the pool,

-|  And climbed the further bank;

-|  And plunging through deep brake,

-|  Ran wildly onward,

-|  Startling as I went

-|  A browsing herd of antelope,

-|  That, bounding, fled before me down the valley

-|  And after them I raced,

-|  As though the hunter,

-|  Not the hunted,

-|  Until the chase sang in my blood,

-|  And braced my straining thews.

-|  I knew not if men followed,

-|  Yet, on I sped, impetuously,

-|  As speeds the fleet-foot onaga,

-|  That breasts the windy morning,

-|  With lifted head, and nostrils wide,

-|  Exultant in his youth.

-|  So, on and ever on,

-|  Scarce knowing why I ran--

-|  Enough for me to feel

-|  Earth beaten back behind my heels,

-|  And hear the loud air singing

-|  The blood-song in my ears:

-|  Till, stumbling headlong over

-|  An unseen, fallen branch,

-|  I rolled in a deep bed of withered leaves;

-|  And lay, full-length in shuddering ecstasy

-|  Of hot, tumultuous blood that rioted

-|  Through every throbbing vein.

-|  But when again, I breathed more easily,

-|  And my wild, fluttering heart kept slower beat,

-|  Hot-foot, my thoughts ran, wondering, backward:

-|  And I arose and followed them

-|  With swift and stealthy pace,

-|  Until I reached the stream.

-|  Along the bank I stole with wary step,

-|  Until I came to where the waters

-|  Narrowed, raging through a gorge,

-|  Nigh the threshold of my home:

-|  And across the thunderous flood,

-|  From crag to crag I leapt:

-|  And then I climbed a cedar,

-|  From whose close ambush I could watch

-|  Who came or went about the cavern-mouth.

-|  I lay along a level branch:

-|  And, through the thick, dark screen,

-|  I peered with eager eyes:

-|  But no one crossed my sight.

-|  The whole land lay before me, drowsing

-|  In deepest noonday slumber:

-|  No twig stirred in the breathless blaze;

-|  And underneath the boughs no serpent rustled:

-|  And, in the earth and air,

-|  Naught waked, save one lone eagle, nigh the sun,

-|  With wings, unbaffled, beating

-|  Up the blue, unclouded heavens.

-|  A dreamless, suave security

-|  Seemed brooding o'er the valley's golden slumber,

-|  Whence rang or flashed no hint of lurking peril.

-|  I dropped to earth,

-|  And crouching low,

-|  I stole yet nearer

-|  Through the brake:

-|  Till, drawing nigh the cavern-mouth,

-|  I heard the sound of half-hushed sobbing:

-|  And then I saw, within the gloom,

-|  My mother and my sisters clustering round

-|  My father's body, lying stark and dead,

-|  A spear-wound in his breast.

-|  And as I crept to them, they did not hear me,

-|  Nor ever lift their heads;

-|  But, shuddering, crouched together,

-|  With drooping breasts half-hid in falling hair,

-|  By that familiar form

-|  In such strange slumber bound.

-|  Only the baby, on her shoulder slung,

-|  Saw me, and crowed me greeting,

-|  As I stooped down to touch my weeping mother,

-|  Who, turning suddenly,

-|  With wild tear-fevered eyes;

-|  Arose with whispered warning;

-|  But, even then, too late.

-|  Already, from behind,

-|  Around my throat

-|  An arm was flung;

-|  And heavily I fell:

-|  Yet, with a desperate wrench,

-|  I slipped the clutch of my assailant:

-|  And picking up a slingstone that lay handy,

-|  I crashed it through his helm;

-|  And dead he dropped.

-|  And now upon me all his fellows thronged,

-|  Like hounds about an antelope;

-|  And gripped my naked limbs,

-|  And dragged me down,

-|  A struggling beast, among them:

-|  And desperately I fought,

-|  As fights the boar at bay,

-|  When all the yelling pack,

-|  With lathered lips, and white teeth gnashing,

-|  Is closing in upon him;

-|  And in his quivering flank, and gasping throat,

-|  He feels the fangs of death:

-|  Till, overcome at last,

-|  They bound me hand and foot,

-|  With knotted, leathern thongs;

-|  And dragged me out to where, beneath the trees,

-|  Trussed in like manner, with defiant eyes,

-|  My brothers lay, already, side by side.

-|  They laid me in the shade;

-|  And flicked my wincing spirit

-|  With laughter and light words:

-|  "Now is the roe-buck taken!"

-|  Then another,

-|  On whose dark, sullen face there burned a livid weal

-|  "A buck in flight's a panther brought to bay!"

-|  And then his fellow:

-|  "True enough! and yet,

-|  For such young thews they give good gold--

-|  They give good gold in Babylon!"

-|  And, laughing thus, they left us,

-|  To lie through hours of aching silence,

-|  Until, at length, the cool of evening fell;

-|  When they returned from slumber;

-|  And loosed the ankle-cords that we might stand;

-|  And bade our mother feed us;

-|  And she, with tender fingers, held

-|  The milk-bowl to our parching lips;

-|  And thrust dried dates betwixt our teeth;

-|  And wept, to see us standing there,

-|  With helpless hands, before her.

-|  Then, bringing out their mules, they saddled them;

-|  And tied us to the girths on either hand.

-|  They drove my weeping sisters from the cavern;

-|  And sought to tear my mother from her home;

-|  But she escaped them;

-|  And they let her bide

-|  Amid the ruins of her life,

-|  Whose light had dropped, so suddenly,

-|  From out the highest heavens:

-|  And, when I turned to look on her,

-|  And win from her a last farewell,

-|  I saw her, sitting desolate betwixt

-|  Her silent husband and her wailing babe,

-|  With still, strange eyes,

-|  That stared upon the dead, unseeing,

-|  While her own children went from her,

-|  Scarce knowing that they left her, nevermore

-|  To look upon her face.

-

-|  Thus, we set out, as over

-|  The darkening, Southern crags

-|  The new moon's keen, curved blade was thrust:

-|  My sisters trooping on before us,

-|  Like a drove of young gazelles,

-|  Which, in the dead of night,

-|  With pards in leash, and torches flaring,

-|  The hunters have encompassed.

-|  They moved with timid steps,

-|  And little runs;

-|  Stumbling, with stifled cries;

-|  And starting, panic-shot,

-|  From every lurking shadow--

-|  Behind them, terror's lifted lash:

-|  Before them, ever crouching,

-|  The horror of the unknown night--

-|  While, as they moved before us,

-|  The moonlight shivered off their shrinking shoulders

-|  And naked, glancing limbs,

-|  In shimmering, strange beauty.

-|  And closely on their heels,

-|  I, with my brothers, foremost in the file,

-|  Marched, tethered 'twixt the plodding beasts,

-|  Whose stolid riders sat,

-|  Each with his javelin on the pummel couched,

-|  In watchful silence, with dark eyes alert.

-|  And once, nigh driven crazy

-|  By the tugging of the thongs,

-|  I sprang into the air,

-|  As down a rocky steep we scrambled;

-|  And strove to burst the galling bonds,

-|  Or hurl my guards on one another;

-|  But, all too sure of foot, the beasts,

-|  And too securely girths and cords

-|  Held me, and I stumbled.

-|  Instantly a thong

-|  Struck my wincing shoulders,

-|  Blow on thudding blow.

-|  I bit my lips; and strode on silently;

-|  Nor fought again for freedom.

-|  So on we journeyed through the night,

-|  And down familiar mountain-tracks,

-|  Through deep, dark forest,

-|  Ever down and down;

-|  Fording the streams, whose moon-bright waters flowed,

-|  In eddies of delicious, aching cool,

-|  About our weary thighs.

-|  And, once, when in mid-torrent,

-|  That swirled, girth-high about the plunging beasts,

-|  A startled otter, glancing

-|  Before their very hoofs,

-|  Affrighted them; and, rearing,

-|  With blind and desperate floundering,

-|  They nearly dragged us down to death:

-|  And, ere we righted,

-|  With a fearful cry,

-|  My eldest sister from the bevy broke;

-|  And struck down-stream

-|  With wild arm lashing desperately,

-|  Until the current caught her;

-|  And she sank, to rise no more.

-|  And on again we travelled,

-|  Down through the darkling woodlands:

-|  And once I saw green, burning eyes,

-|  Where, on a low-hung bough,

-|  A night-black panther crouched,

-|  As though to pounce upon my sisters;

-|  But, the sudden crack of whips,

-|  Startling him, he snarled;

-|  And turned with lashing tail,

-|  Crashing through dense brushwood.

-

-|  When, once, again we came unto a clearing,

-|  The night was near its noon:

-|  And all the vales that lay before us

-|  Were filled with moving, moonlit mists,

-|  That seemed phantasmal waters

-|  Of that enchanted world,

-|  Where we, in dreams, sail over still lagoons,

-|  Throughout eternal night,

-|  And under unknown stars.

-|  Still, on we fared, unresting,

-|  Until the low moon paled;

-|  When, halting on a mountain-spur,

-|  We first looked down on Babylon,

-|  Far in the dreaming West,

-|  A cluster of dim towers,

-|  Scarce visible to wearied eyes.

-|  We camped within a sheltering cedar-grove;

-|  And all the day, beneath the level boughs,

-|  Upon the agelong-bedded needles lay,

-|  Half-slumbering, with fleeting, fretful dreams

-|  That could not quite forget the chafing cords,

-|  That held our arms in aching numbness:

-|  But, ere the noon, in sounder sleep I sank,

-|  Dreaming I floated on a still, deep pool,

-|  Beneath dark, overhanging branches;

-|  And seemed to feel upon my cheek

-|  The cool caress of waters;

-|  While, far above me, through the night of trees,

-|  Noon glimmered faintly as the glint of stars.

-|  As thus I lay, in indolent ecstasy,

-|  O'er me, suddenly, the waters

-|  Curved, and I was dragged,

-|  Down and down,

-|  Through gurgling deeps

-|  Of swirling, drowning darkness...

-|  When I awoke in terror;

-|  And strove to sit upright;

-|  But, tautly, with a jerk,

-|  The thongs that held me to my brothers,

-|  Dragged me back to earth.

-

-|  Awhile I lay, with staring eyes, awake,

-|  Watching a big, grey spider, crouched overhead,

-|  In ambush 'neath a twig, beside her web,

-|  Oft sallying out, to bind yet more securely,

-|  The half-entangled flies.

-|  And then, once more, I slumbered;

-|  And dreamed a face leant over me,

-|  More fair than any face

-|  My waking eyes had ever looked upon.

-|  Its beauty burned above me,

-|  Not dusky like my sisters' faces,

-|  But pale as the wan moon,

-|  Reflected in a flood

-|  Of darkly flowing waters,

-|  Or as the creaming froth,

-|  That, born amid the thunder of the fall,

-|  Floats on the river's bosom in the sunshine,

-|  Bubble after bubble,

-|  Perishing in air.

-|  So, a moment, over me,

-|  With frail and fleeting glimmer

-|  Of strange elusive, evanescent light,

-|  The holy vision hovered.

-|  And yet, whenever, with a fervent longing,

-|  I sought to look into the darkling eyes,

-|  The face would fade from me,

-|  As foam caught in an eddy:

-|  Until, at last, I wakened,

-|  And, wondering, saw a pale star gleaming

-|  Betwixt the cedar-branches.

-|  And soon our captors stirred:

-|  And we arose, to see

-|  The walls and towers of Babylon, dark

-|  Against the clear rose of the afterglow,

-|  Already in the surge of shadows caught,

-|  As night, beneath us, slowly Westward swept,

-|  Flooding the dreaming plain that lay before us,

-|  Vast, limitless, bewildering,

-|  And strange to mountain-eyes.

-|  As down the slope we went,

-|  And when, at last, we left behind

-|  The hills and singing waters,

-|  A vague, oppressive fear

-|  Of those dim, silent leagues of level land,

-|  Fell on me; and I almost seemed

-|  To bear upon my shoulders

-|  The vaster dome of overwhelming night;

-|  And, trembling like a child,

-|  I looked askance at my two captors,

-|  As they rode on in heedless silence,

-|  Their swarthy faces sharp

-|  Against the lucent sky.

-|  And then, once more,

-|  The old, familiar watchfires of the stars

-|  Brought courage to my bosom;

-|  And the young moon's brilliant horn

-|  Was exalted in the sky:

-|  And soon, the glooming wilderness

-|  Awoke with glittering waters,

-|  As a friendly wind sang unto me

-|  Among the swaying reeds:

-|  While, cloud on cloud,

-|  The snowy flocks of pelican

-|  Before our coming rose;

-|  And, as they swerved to Southward,

-|  The moonlight shivered off their flashing pinions.

-

-|  So, on we marched, till dawn, across the plain;

-|  And, on and on,

-|  Beneath the waxing moon,

-|  Each night we travelled Westward;

-|  Until, at last, we halted

-|  By the broad dull-gleaming flood

-|  Of mighty, roaring Tigris;

-|  And aroused from midnight slumber

-|  The surly, grumbling ferrymen,

-|  And crossed the swollen waters

-|  Upon the great, skin rafts:

-|  Then on again we fared,

-|  Until the far, dim towers soared in the dawnlight

-|  And we encamped beside a stream,

-|  Beneath dry, rustling palms.

-|  And heavily I slumbered:

-|  And only wakened once, at noon,

-|  When, lifting up my head,

-|  I saw the towers of Babylon, burning blue,

-|  Far off, in the blind heat:

-|  And slept again, till sunset,

-|  When we took our Westward course

-|  Along the low bank of a broad canal,

-|  That glimmered wanly 'neath a moonless sky.

-|  Higher, and higher still,

-|  As we drew slowly nearer,

-|  Arose the vasty walls and serried towers,

-|  That seemed to thrust among the stars,

-|  And on embattled summits bear the night,

-|  Unbowed beneath their burden,

-|  As easily as, with unruffled brows,

-|  And limber, upright bodies,

-|  The village-daughters carry

-|  At eve the brimming pitchers,

-|  Poised upon their heads.

-|  And when, above us, the wide-looming walls

-|  Shut out the Western stars;

-|  Beneath their shade, at midnight, we encamped,

-|  To await till dawn should open

-|  The city gates for us.

-|  That night we did not sleep,

-|  But, crouched upon the ground,

-|  We watched the moon rise over Babylon,

-|  Till, far behind us, o'er the glittering waste,

-|  Was flung the wall's huge shadow,

-|  And the moving shades of sentries,

-|  Who, unseen above our heads,

-|  Paced through the night incessantly.

-|  Thus long we sat, hushed with awed expectation,

-|  And gazing o'er the plain that we had travelled,

-|  As, gradually, the climbing moon,

-|  Escaping from the clustering towers,

-|  Revealed far-gleaming waters,

-|  And the sharp, shrill cry of owls,

-|  Sweeping by on noiseless plumes,

-|  Assailed the vasty silence,

-|  Shivering off like darts

-|  From some impenetrable shield.

-|  And, as we waited,

-|  Sometimes, fearfully,

-|  I gazed up those stupendous, soaring walls

-|  Of that great, slumbering city, wondering

-|  What doom behind the bastioned ramparts slept,

-|  What destiny, beneath the brooding night,

-|  Awaited me beyond the brazen gates.

-|  But, naught the blind, indifferent stars revealed,

-|  Though towards the long night's ending,

-|  Half-dazed with gazing up that aching height,

-|  A drowsiness fell over me,

-|  And in a restless waking-trance I lay,

-|  Dreaming that Life and Death before me stood.

-|  And, as each thrust towards me a shrouded cup,

-|  Implacable silence bade me choose and drink.

-|  But, as I stretched a blind, uncertain hand

-|  To take the cup of death,

-|  I wakened, and dawn trembled,

-|  At last, beyond the Eastern hills,

-|  And, star by star, night failed;

-|  And eagerly the sun leapt up the sky,

-|  And, as his flashing rays

-|  Smote kindling towers and flaming gates of brass,

-|  Across the reedy moat

-|  A clattering drawbridge fell,

-|  And wide the glittering portals slowly swung:

-|  And there came streaming out in slow procession

-|  A sleepy caravan of slouching camels,

-|  Groaning and grumbling as they strode along

-|  Beneath their mountainous burdens,

-|  Upon whose swaying summits,

-|  Impassively, the blue-robed merchants sat.

-|  They passed us slowly by,

-|  And then we took the bridge,

-|  And, while our captors parleyed with the guards,

-|  Who stood, on either hand,

-|  With naked swords,

-|  I turned my head,

-|  And saw for the last time, far Eastward,

-|  The cold, snow-brilliant peaks,

-|  Beyond my dim, blue, native hills.

-|  And, as I looked, my thoughts flew homeward,

-|  And I, one dreaming moment,

-|  Stood by my mourning mother in the cavern

-|  Of desolation, looking on the dead.

-|  And then, between the brazen gate-posts,

-|  And underneath the brazen lintel,

-|  At last we entered Babylon.

-|  Before us, yet another wall arose,

-|  And, turning sharply

-|  Down a narrow way,

-|  The living breath of heaven seemed shut from us

-|  As though beneath the beetling crags

-|  Of some deep mountain-gorge--

-|  By cliffs of wall, on either hand,

-|  That soared up to the narrow sky,

-|  Which with dim lustre lit

-|  The shimmering surface of enamelled brick,

-|  Whereon, through giant groves,

-|  Blue-coated hunters chased the boar,

-|  Or 'loosed red-tasselled falcon

-|  After flying crane.

-|  But soon we reached another gate,

-|  Sword-guarded, and we entered,

-|  And plunged into the traffic

-|  Of clamorous merchantmen,

-|  Speeding their business ere the heat of day.

-|  And as we jostled, slowly,

-|  Through bewildering bazaars,

-|  The porters and the idler wayfarers

-|  All turned to look upon our shame,

-|  With cold, unpitying eyes,

-|  And indolent, gaping mouths,

-|  Or jested with our captors,

-|  Until we left the busier thoroughfares,

-|  And walked through groves of cypress and of ilex,

-|  Where not a sound or rumour troubled

-|  The silence of the dark-plumed boughs

-|  And glimmering deeps of peace,

-|  Save only the cool spurt of waters

-|  That, from a myriad unseen jets,

-|  Fretted the crystal airs of morning,

-|  And fell in frolic showers

-|  Of twinkling, rainbow drops,

-|  That plashed in unseen basins;

-|  And through the blaze of almond-orchards,

-|  Tremulous with blossom

-|  That flickered in a rosy, silken snow

-|  Of falling petals over us,

-|  And wreathed about our feet

-|  In soft and scented drifts;

-|  Beneath pomegranate trees in young, green leaf,

-|  And through vast gardens, glowing with strange flowers,

-|  Such as no April kindled into bloom

-|  Among the valleys of my native hills.

-|  We came unto a court of many fountains,

-|  Where, leaping off their jaded mules,

-|  Our captors loosed the thongs that held us,

-|  But left our wrists still bound.

-|  And one with great clay pitchers came,

-|  And over our hot bodies, travel-stained,

-|  Poured out cool, cleansing waters

-|  In a gurgling, crystal stream,

-|  And flung coarse robes of indigo

-|  About our naked shoulders.

-|  And here we left behind us

-|  The maidens and the younger boys,

-|  And passing through a gateway,

-|  Came out upon a busy wharf,

-|  Where, southward, midway through the city,

-|  The broad Euphrates flows,

-|  His dark flood thronged with merchant-dhows,

-|  And fishing-boats of reed and bitumen,

-|  Piled high with glistering barbel, freshly-caught;

-|  And foreign craft, with many-coloured sails,

-|  And laden deep with precious merchandise,

-|  That, over wide, bewildering waters,

-|  Across the perilous world,

-|  The adventurous, dark-bearded mariners,

-|  Who swear by unknown gods in alien tongues,

-|  Bring ever to the gates of Babylon.

-|  We crossed the drawbridge, round whose granite piers

-|  Swirled strong, Spring-swollen waters,

-|  Loud and tawny,

-|  And, through great brazen portals,

-|  Passed within the palace gates,

-|  When first I saw afar the hanging-gardens,

-|  Arch on arch,

-|  And tier on tier,

-|  Against a glowing sky.

-|  Two strapping Nubians, like young giants

-|  Hewn from blue-black marble

-|  By some immortal hand in immemorial ages,

-|  Led us slowly onward.

-|  The dappled pard-skins, slung across their shoulders,

-|  Scarcely hid the ox-like thews,

-|  Beneath the dark skin rippling,

-|  As they strode along before us.

-|  Through courts of alabaster,

-|  And painted corridors,

-

-|  And chambers fair with flowery tapestries

-|  They led us, wondering, till at last we came

-|  Into a vast, dim hall of glimmering gold,

-|  The end of all our journeying.

-|  And, as we halted on the threshold,

-|  My eyes could see but little for a moment,

-|  In the dusky, heavy air,

-|  Through the ceaseless cloud of incense,

-|  Rising from the smouldering braziers

-|  To the gold, grey-clouded dome,

-|  Tingling strangely in my nostrils,

-|  As I came from morning airs;

-|  Then slowly filling them with drowsy fume,

-|  When, looking up with half-dazed eyes,

-|  I saw the King upon his golden throne:

-|  And through my body

-|  Raged rebellious blood,

-|  In baffled riot beating

-|  At my corded wrists,

-|  As if to burst the galling bonds,

-|  That I might hurl that lean, swart face,

-|  So idly turning towards us,

-|  With thin curled lips,

-|  And cold, incurious eyes,

-|  To headlong death--

-|  Yea! even though I tumbled

-|  The towers of Babylon round about my head.

-|  And, when our captors bowed their foreheads low,

-|  Obsequious to the throne,

-|  I stood upright,

-|  And gazed my loathing on that listless form--

-|  The gay, embroidered robe,

-|  The golden cap, that prankt the crispèd locks,

-|  The short, square beard, new-oiled and barbered--

-|  But, in a flash,

-|  A heavy blow

-|  Fell on my head,

-|  And struck me to my knees

-|  Before the sleek, indifferent king.

-|  And then, on either hand,

-|  With gripping palms upon my shoulders set,

-|  The Nubians towered above me

-|  Like mighty men of stone.

-|  And savagely I struggled,

-|  Half-stunned, to rise again;

-|  When, as I vainly battled

-|  In their unrelenting clutch,

-|  My eyes lit for the first time on the Queen,

-|  Who sat upon the daïs, by her lord

-|  Half-shadowed, on a throne of ivory,

-|  And all the hate died in me, as I saw

-|  The face that hovered over me in dream,

-|  When I had slept beneath the low-boughed cedar:

-|  The moon-pale brows, o'er which the clustered hair

-|  Hung like the smoke of torches, ruddy-gold,

-|  Against a canopy of peacock plumes:

-|  The deep brown, burning eyes,

-|  From which the soul looked on me in fierce pity.

-|  And, as I gazed on that exultant beauty,

-|  The hunter and the slayer of men

-|  Was slain within me instantly,

-|  And I forgot the mountains and my home;

-|  My desolate mother, and my father's death;

-|  My captive sisters ... and the thronèd King!

-|  I was as one, that moment,

-|  New-born into the world

-|  Full-limbed and thewed,

-|  Yet, with the wondering heart

-|  Of earth-bewildered childhood.

-|  And, unto me, it seemed

-|  That, as the Queen looked down on me,

-|  There stole into her eyes

-|  Some dim remembrance of old dreams,

-|  That in their brown depths flickered

-|  With strange, elusive light,

-|  Like stars that tremble in still forest-pools.

-|  One spake--

-|  I scarce knew whom, nor cared--

-|  And bade me choose,

-|  Before the throne,

-|  Between a life of slavery,

-|  Or merciful, swift death--

-|  Death, that but a moment since,

-|  I would have dragged, exulting, on me--

-|  And with my eyes still set on the Queen's face,

-|  I answered:

-|  "I will serve":

-|  And scarcely heeded that my wrists were loosed.

-

-|  And, huddled in a stifling hut,

-|  That night, among my fellows,

-|  I could not sleep at all:

-|  But gazed, wild-eyed, till dawn upon that face,

-|  Which hovered o'er me, like the moon of dreams;

-|  And seemed to draw the wandering tides of life

-|  In one vast wave, which ever strove

-|  To climb the heavens wherein she moved,

-|  That it might break in triumphing foam about her.

-|  Not then, nor ever afterwards,

-|  Was I a slave, among my fellow-slaves,

-|  But one, who, with mean drudgery,

-|  And daily penance serves

-|  Before a holy altar,

-|  That, sometimes, as he labours, his glad eyes

-|  May catch a gleam of the immortal light

-|  Within the secret shrine;

-|  Yea! and, maybe, shall look, one day, with trembling,

-|  On the bright-haired, imperishable god.

-|  And, even when, day after day,

-|  I bore the big reed-baskets, laden

-|  With wet clay, digged beyond the Western moat,

-|  Although I seemed to tread,

-|  As treads the ox that turns the water-wheel,

-|  A blindfold round of servitude,

-|  My quenchless vision ever burned before me:

-|  And when, in after days, I fed

-|  The roaring oven-furnaces;

-|  And toiled by them through sweltering days,

-|  Though over me, at times, would come

-|  Great longing for the hill-tops,

-|  And the noise of torrent-waters:

-|  Or when, more skilled, I moulded

-|  The damp clay into bricks;

-|  And spread the colour and the glaze;

-|  And in strength-giving heat of glowing kilns,

-|  I baked them durable,

-|  Clean-shaped, and meet for service:

-|  My vision flamed yet brighter;

-|  And unto me it seemed

-|  As if my gross and useless clay were burned

-|  In a white ecstasy of lustral fire,

-|  That, in the fashioning of the house of love,

-|  I might serve perfectly the builder's need.

-|  Thus, many months, I laboured;

-|  Till, one day, at the noontide hour of rest,

-|  I lay; and with a sharpened reed--

-|  As temple-scribes write down the holy lore

-|  On tablets of wet clay--

-|  On the moist earth beside me,

-|  I limned a young fawn, cropping

-|  A bunch of tender, overhanging leaves.

-|  And, as I slowly drew,

-|  I dreamt a little sadly of the days,

-|  When I, too, roamed, untethered,

-|  And drinking in, unquestioning,

-|  The sunshine and the air,

-|  And all the rapture of the earth that turns,

-|  New every morning to the wondering sun,

-|  Refashioned in still nights of starry dews:

-|  But one, the while, unseen of me,

-|  Watched my unconscious hand, approving:

-|  And I was set, next morning,

-|  Among the craftsmen, who so deftly limned

-|  The hunts and battles for the palace walls.

-|  And, happily, with them I lived

-|  A life of loving labour, for each line

-|  Flowed from the knowledge of my heart:

-|  I drew the startled ostrich

-|  Fleeing from the far-flung noose:

-|  The brindled lynx; the onaga

-|  In dewy-plashing flight;

-|  The bristling boar, at bay,

-|  Crouched in a deadly ring of threatening spears,

-|  With streaming nostrils, and red eyes ablaze;

-|  The striped hyæna; the gaunt, green-eyed wolf;

-|  The skulking jackal; the grey, brush-tailed fox;

-|  The hunting leopard and the antelope,

-|  In mid-chase tense,

-|  With every thew astrain;

-|  The dappled panther; the brown-eyed gazelle,

-|  Butting with black horns through the tangled brake

-|  The nimble hare, alert, with pricked-up ears;

-|  The tiger, crouched, with yellow eyes afire;

-|  The shaggy mountain-goat,

-|  Perched on the utmost crag,

-|  Against the afterglow of lucent ruby,

-|  Or, poised with bunching hoofs

-|  In mid-spring over a dark, yawning chasm;

-|  Or the black stallion, with his tameless troop,

-|  Fording a mountain-river in the dawn.

-|  And, sometimes, as we toiled,

-|  A terrible fleeting rapture

-|  Would come upon me, when the Queen

-|  Passed by us with her maidens;

-|  Or paused, a moment, gazing,

-|  With tranced and kindling eyes upon our labours:

-|  But never did I dare, at any time,

-|  To lift my eyes to hers,

-|  And look, as soul on soul,

-|  As on the day her beauty brought to birth

-|  The strange new life within me.

-|  In silence she would ever leave us;

-|  And ever with her passing perished

-|  The light and colour of my work;

-|  So that my heart failed, daunted by that glimpse

-|  Of the ever-living beauty.

-|  And, sometimes, I would carve in ruddy teak,

-|  Or ivory, from the Indian merchants bought,

-|  Or in the rare, black basalt, little beasts

-|  To please the idle fancies of the King;

-|  Or model in wet clay, and cast in bronze,

-|  Great bulls and lions for the palace-courts;

-|  Or carve him seals of lapis-lazuli,

-|  Of jasper, amethyst and serpentine,

-|  Chalcedony--carnelian, chrysoprase,

-|  Agate, sardonyx, and chalcedonyx--

-|  Green jade, and alabaster;

-|  Or cut in stones that flashed and flickered

-|  Like a glancing kingfisher,

-|  Or, in the sun-filled amber,

-|  The kite with broad wings spread,

-|  Or little fluttering doves that pecked

-|  A golden bunch of dates:

-|  And then of these in settings of fine gold

-|  Made fillets, rings and ear-rings.

-

-|  Thus, one day,

-|  Dreaming, as ever, of the Queen,

-|  I wrought a golden serpent for her hair:

-|  And when I brought it to the King, next morn,

-|  Where he sat brooding over chess,

-|  He bade me bear it to the Queen, myself,

-|  And so, I went unto her, where she sat,

-|  Among her singing maidens, at the loom,

-|  Weaving a silken web of Tyrian dye.

-|  I laid the trinket at her feet, in silence:

-|  And she arose, and set it in her hair,

-|  Whose living lustre far outshone

-|  The cold, dead metal I had fashioned,

-|  As she stood before me, dreaming,

-|  In her robe of flowing blue;

-|  Then looked a moment on me with kind eyes.

-|  And though she spoke no word,

-|  I turned, and fled, in trembling,

-|  Before the light that shivered through me,

-|  And struck my soul with shuddering ecstasy:

-|  And, still, through many days,

-|  Although I did not look again

-|  Upon those dreaming eyes,

-|  Their visionary light

-|  Within my soul, revealed eternity.

-

-|  Thus, have the mortal years

-|  Flowed onward to the perfect end--

-|  This day of days,

-|  That never night shall quench,

-|  Nor darkness vanquish:

-|  And, at dawn,

-|  I die.

-

-|  And yet, this morning, as I slowly climbed

-|  The steep, ascending stages

-|  That lead up to the hanging-gardens--

-|  Where, tier on tier,

-|  The great brick arches bore

-|  Their April wealth of blossoms,

-|  Plumed with palm and dusky cypress--

-|  I little knew that I

-|  Who came to carve a garland

-|  Round a fountain's porphry basin,

-|  Should scale so soon the utmost peak of life.

-|  Throughout the morn I toiled,

-|  Until an hour ere noon--

-|  For no one, save the King and Queen,

-|  May walk in those high gardens, after midday--

-|  When, underneath a cypress shade,

-|  I paused, a moment, resting;

-|  And looking down upon the basking city,

-|  Beneath me slumbering deeply--

-|  Garden on garden glowing, grove on grove,

-|  Like some green fabric, shot with myriad hues,

-|  And chequered with white clusters of flat roofs,

-|  Aquiver in clear heat:

-|  And then I gazed up through the aching azure,

-|  At the restless kites that hover

-|  Ever over Babylon:

-|  And, as I watched one broad-winged bird that hung

-|  Above the seven-coloured pyramid

-|  Of Bel's great temple,

-|  With wide pinions spread,

-|  As though it kept eternal vigil over

-|  The golden image in the golden shrine,

-|  I thought of eagles poised

-|  Above the peaks of glittering snows,

-|  Beyond the Eastern plains.

-|  Half-dreaming, thus, I lay,

-|  Lulled by the tinkling waters,

-|  Till, unawares, sleep slowly overcame me;

-|  And noonday drifted by:

-|  And still, I slept, unheeding:

-|  And, in my sleep,

-|  I looked on Beauty in a quiet place

-|  Of forest gloom and immemorial dream:

-|  When, something rousing me from slumber,

-|  With waking eyes that yet seemed dream-enchanted,

-|  I looked upon the Queen,

-|  Where, in a secret close,

-|  Set thickly round with screens of yew and ilex,

-|  She stood upon the dark, broad brim

-|  Of a wide granite basin, gazing down,

-|  With dreaming eyes, into the glooming cool,

-|  Unraimented, save of the flickering gleam,

-|  Reflected from the lucent waters,

-|  That flowed before her silently:

-|  And slowly, from her feet,

-|  The cold light rippled up her body, till,

-|  Entangled in the meshes of her hair,

-|  It flooded the calm rapture of her face:

-|  When, dreaming still, she lifted up her eyes,

-|  Unseeing; and I looked upon her soul,

-|  Unveiled, in naked immortality,

-|  Untrammelled by the trappings of brief time,

-|  And cloaks of circumstance.

-|  How long I looked upon the perfect beauty,

-|  I cannot tell--

-|  Each moment, flowing to eternity,

-|  Bearing me further from time's narrow shores;

-|  Though, yet, a little while,

-|  From those unshadowed deeps time sought to hold me.

-

-|  Suddenly, I felt

-|  A ghostly arrow pierce my life;

-|  And I leapt up, and turning,

-|  I saw the King beside me,

-|  With steely, glittering eyes

-|  Shooting barbed anger,

-|  Though he coldly spake,

-|  With evil, curling lips:

-|  "Slave, thou art dead!"

-|  And yet I did not quail:

-|  But, looking 'twixt his brows,

-|  I answered: and he blenched before my words:

-|  "Nay!  I have seen:

-|  "And am newborn, a King!"

-|  And then his craven fingers

-|  Went quaking to his wagging beard,

-|  As if he felt my clutch upon his throat:

-|  Yet, though, with one quick blow,

-|  I might have hurled him down to death,

-|  I never stirred:

-|  And, eyeing me, he summoned

-|  The negro-eunuchs, who kept watch below:

-|  But I, ere they could spring up the first stage,

-|  Went forth to meet them;

-|  And they bound my wrists.

-

-|  And so, down from the hills, my life has flowed,

-|  Until, at fullest flood, it meets the sea.

-|  With calm and unregretful heart, I wait

-|  Till dawn shall loose the arrow from the bow.

-|  I, who, with eager, faltering hand have sought

-|  To fashion a little beauty, in the end,

-|  Have looked on the perfect beauty, and I die--

-|  Even as the priest, who, in the heart of night,

-|  Trembling before the thunder-riven shrine,

-|  Looks on the face of God, and perishes.

-|  I die...

-|  And yet, maybe, when earth lies heavily

-|  Upon the time-o'ertoppled towers,

-|  And tumbled walls, and broken gates of brass;

-|  And the winds whisper one another:

-|  "Where, Oh! where is Babylon?"

-|  In the dim underworld of dreaming shades,

-|  My soul shall seek out beauty

-|  And look, once more,

-|  Upon the unveiled vision...

-|  And not die.

-

-|  Night passes: and already in the court,

-|  Amid the plash of fountains,

-|  There sounds the pad of naked feet approaching.

-|  With slow, deliberate pace,

-|  As though they trod out all my perished years,

-|  The Nubians come, to lead me out to death.

-|  Slowly the great door opens;

-|  And clearer comes the call of waters;

-|  Cool airs are on my brow ...

-|  Lo! ... in the East, the dawn.

-

-.. vspace:: 3

-

-.. class:: center small

-

-   LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED.

-

-.. vspace:: 6

-

-.. pgfooter::

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-                             AKRA THE SLAVE
-
-
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
-no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-
-
-Title: Akra the Slave
-Author: Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
-Release Date: February 08, 2013 [EBook #42051]
-Language: English
-Character set encoding: US-ASCII
-
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AKRA THE SLAVE ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Al Haines.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: Cover]
-
-
-
-
-                             AKRA THE SLAVE
-
-
-                                   BY
-                         WILFRID WILSON GIBSON
-
-
-
-                                 LONDON
-                       ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET
-                                  MCMX
-
-
-
-
-_Six years ago, I wrote this story down,_
-_While yet the light of Eastern skies_
-_Was in my eyes,_
-_And still my heart, aglow with memories_
-_Of sun-enraptured seas,_
-_And that old sea-girt town._
-_Where, down dark alleys of enchanted night,_
-_We stole, until we came_
-_To where the great dome glimmered white._
-_And every minaret,_
-_A shaft of pearly flame,_
-_Beneath the cloudy moon..._
-
-_Six years ago!_
-_Ah! soon--too soon,_
-_Our tale, too, will be told:_
-_And yet, and yet,_
-_From this old Eastern tale we know,_
-_Love's story never can grow old,_
-_Till Love, himself, forget._
-
-
-
-
-                             AKRA THE SLAVE
-
-
-He thought to see me tremble
-And totter as an oar-snapt reed,
-When he spake death to me--
-My courage, toppled in the dust,
-Even as the head of cactus
-The camel-keeper slashes
-That his beasts may browse, unscathed,
-The succulent, wounded green.
-He thought to have me, broken,
-And grovelling at his feet;
-Mouthing and mumbling to his sandal-ties,
-In stammering dread of death--
-Aye! even as a king,
-Who, having from death's hand,
-Received his crown and kingdom,
-For ever treads in terror of the hour
-When death shall jog his elbow,
-Twitch the purple from his shoulders,
-And claim again the borrowed crown.
-But, little need have I to fear
-The crouching, lean camp-follower,
-Unto whose ever-gaping maw,
-Day after day, I flung
-The spoils of bow and arrow,
-Ere I was taken captive--
-I, who have often, at my mother's breast,
-Awakened in the night-time,
-To see death leering on me from the cave-mouth,
-A gaunt and slinking shape
-That snuffed the dying embers,
-Blotting out the friendly stars--
-I, who, a scarce-weaned boy,
-Have toddled, gay and fearless,
-Down the narrow jungle-track,
-Through bodeful forest-darkness, panther-eyed;
-And have felt cold snakes uncoiling
-And gliding 'neath my naked sole,
-From clammy slumber startled;
-While, with sharp snap and crackle,
-Beast-trodden branches strained behind me,
-My father's hand scarce snatching me
-Before the spring of crouching death!
-But, naught of this the King could know,
-He only knew that, on that far-off morning,
-When first I came before him, captive,
-Among my captive brothers,
-And, as he lightly held, in idle fingers,
-Above my unbowed head,
-In equal poise
-Death's freedom
-Or the servitude of life,
-I clutched at life:
-And cared but little that his lips
-Should curl, to see me, broken,
-A slave among his slaves.
-Yet, never slave of his was I;
-Nor did I take my new life from his nod--
-I ... I who could have torn
-The proud life out of him,
-Before his guards could stay me...
-Had she not sat beside him, on her throne.
-
-And he, who knew not then,
-Nor ever, till to-day,
-Has known me aught but slave,
-Remembering that time,
-Spake doom of death to me,
-Idly, as to a slave:
-And I await the end of night,
-And dawn of death,
-Even as a slave awaits...
-Nay! as the unvanquished veteran
-Awaits the hour of victory.
-
-In silence, wheels the night,
-Star-marshalled, over dreaming Babylon;
-And none in all the sleeping city stirs,
-Save the cloaked sentries on the outer walls
-Who tread out patience 'twixt the gates of brass,
-Numb with scarce-baffled slumber,
-Or, maybe, some unsleeping priest of Bel,
-A lonely warder of eternity,
-Who watches on the temple's seventh stage,
-With the unslumbering gods.
-Yet, may not she, the Queen,
-Whose beauty, slaying my body,
-Brings my soul to immortal birth,
-Although she does not know
-Of my last vigil on the peak of life--
-Yet, may not she awaken, troubled
-By strange, bewildering dreams,
-With heart a little fearful of the dawn
-Of day, yet unrevealed?
-
-There is no sound at all,
-Save only the cool plashing
-Of fountains in the courtyard
-Without my lonely cell:
-For fate has granted to me
-This last, least consolation of sweet sound
-Though in the plains I perish,
-I shall hear the noise of waters,
-The noise of running waters,
-As I die.
-My earliest lullaby shall sing
-My heart again to slumber.
-And, even now, I hear
-Stream-voices, long-forgotten, calling me
-Back to the hills of home;
-And, dreaming, I remember
-The little yellow brooks
-That ever, day and night,
-Gush down the mountains singing,
-Singing by the caves:
-And hearkening unto them,
-Once more a tiny baby,
-A wee brown fist I dabble
-In the foaming cool,
-Frothing round my wrist,
-Spurting up my arm,
-Spraying my warm face;
-And then again I chuckle,
-As I see an empty gourd,
-Fallen in the swirling waters,
-Bobbing on the tawny eddies,
-Swiftly out of sight.
-
-And yet most clearly to remembrance comes
-That far-off night, in early Spring,
-When, loud with melted snow from Northern peaks,
-The torrent roared and fretted;
-While, couched within the cavern,
-The clamour kept me wakeful;
-And, even when I slept,
-Tumbled, tumultuous, through my dreams,
-And seemed to surge about me,
-As the brawl of armed men.
-And once I sprang from slumber,
-Hot and startled,
-Dreaming that I felt
-A warm breath on my cheek,
-As if a jackal nuzzled me;
-Or some dread, slinking foe
-Made certain of my sleeping
-Before he plunged the steel.
-But nothing stirred within the glimmering cavern,
-Where, all around me, lay my sleeping kindred;
-And, when I stole without, with noiseless footsteps,
-To rouse the smouldering watchfire into flame,
-And cast fresh, crackling brushwood on the blaze,
-I caught no glint of arms betwixt the branches,
-Nor any sound or rumour, save
-The choral noise of cold hill-waters,
-Cold hill-waters singing,
-Singing to the stars.
-And so I turned me from the brooding night;
-And, couched again upon the leopard-skins,
-I slept, till dawn, in dream-untroubled sleep.
-
-I woke to see the cold sky kindling red,
-Beyond the mounded ash of the spent fire;
-And lay, a moment, watching
-The pearly light, caught, trembling,
-In dewy-beaded spiders' webs
-About the cave-mouth woven.
-Then I arose;
-And left my kindred, slumbering--
-My mother, by my father,
-And, at her breast, her youngest babe,
-With dimpled fingers clutching at her bosom;
-And, all around them, lying
-Their sons and daughters, beautiful in sleep,
-With parted lips,
-And easy limbs outstretched
-Along the tumbled bedskins:
-And while they slumbered yet in shades of night,
-I sprang out naked
-Into eager dawn.
-The sun had not yet scaled the eastern ridge:
-And still the vales were hidden from my eyes
-By snowy wreaths of swathing mist:
-But, high upon a scar
-That jutted sheer and stark,
-In cold grey light,
-There stood an antelope,
-With lifted muzzle snuffing the fresh day;
-When scenting me afar,
-He plunged into the mist
-With one quick, startled bound:
-And, from the smoking vapour,
-Arose a gentle pattering,
-As, down the rocky trail,
-The unseen herd went trotting
-Upon their leader's heels.
-And from the clear horizon
-The exultant sun sprang god-like:
-And on a little mound I stood,
-With eager arms outstretched,
-That, over my cold body,
-The first warm golden beams
-Of his life-giving light might fall.
-And thus, awhile, I stood.
-In radiant adoration tranced,
-Until I caught the call of waters;
-And, running downwards to the stream,
-That plunged into a darkling pool,
-Where, in the rock was scooped a wide, deep basin;
-Upon the glassy brink,
-A moment, I hung, shivering,
-And gazing down through deeps of lucent shadow;
-And then I leapt headlong,
-And felt the cloven waters
-Closing, icy-cold, above me,
-And, again, with sobbing breath,
-Battled to the light and air:
-And I ran into the sunshine,
-Shaking from my tingling limbs
-Showers of scintillating drops
-Over radiant, dewy beds
-Of the snowy cyclamen,
-And dark-red anemone,
-Till my tawny body glowed
-With warm, ruddy, pulsing life.
-And then again I sought the stream,
-And plunged; and now, more boldly,
-I crossed the pool, with easy stroke;
-And climbed the further crag;
-And, turning, plunged again.
-And so, I dived and swam,
-Till pangs of hunger pricked
-My idle fancy homeward:
-And eagerly I climbed the hill;
-When, not a sling's throw from the cavern,
-Stooping to pluck a red anemone,
-To prank the wet, black tangle of my hair,
-I heard a shout;
-And looking up,
-I saw strange men
-With lifted spears
-Bear down on me:
-And as I turned,
-A javelin sang
-Above my shrinking shoulder,
-And bit the ground before me.
-But, swift as light I sped,
-Until I reached the pool,
-And leapt therein:
-And he who pressed most hotly on my heels,
-Fell stumbling after.
-Still I never slackened,
-Although I heard a floundering splash,
-And then the laughter of his comrades:
-And, as I swam for life,
-Betwixt my thrusting heels,
-Another spear that clove the crystal waters
-Glanced underneath my body,
-And in the stream-bed quivered bolt upright,
-Caught in a cleft of rock.
-With frantic arm I struck
-Straight as a snake across the pool,
-And climbed the further bank;
-And plunging through deep brake,
-Ran wildly onward,
-Startling as I went
-A browsing herd of antelope,
-That, bounding, fled before me down the valley
-And after them I raced,
-As though the hunter,
-Not the hunted,
-Until the chase sang in my blood,
-And braced my straining thews.
-I knew not if men followed,
-Yet, on I sped, impetuously,
-As speeds the fleet-foot onaga,
-That breasts the windy morning,
-With lifted head, and nostrils wide,
-Exultant in his youth.
-So, on and ever on,
-Scarce knowing why I ran--
-Enough for me to feel
-Earth beaten back behind my heels,
-And hear the loud air singing
-The blood-song in my ears:
-Till, stumbling headlong over
-An unseen, fallen branch,
-I rolled in a deep bed of withered leaves;
-And lay, full-length in shuddering ecstasy
-Of hot, tumultuous blood that rioted
-Through every throbbing vein.
-But when again, I breathed more easily,
-And my wild, fluttering heart kept slower beat,
-Hot-foot, my thoughts ran, wondering, backward:
-And I arose and followed them
-With swift and stealthy pace,
-Until I reached the stream.
-Along the bank I stole with wary step,
-Until I came to where the waters
-Narrowed, raging through a gorge,
-Nigh the threshold of my home:
-And across the thunderous flood,
-From crag to crag I leapt:
-And then I climbed a cedar,
-From whose close ambush I could watch
-Who came or went about the cavern-mouth.
-I lay along a level branch:
-And, through the thick, dark screen,
-I peered with eager eyes:
-But no one crossed my sight.
-The whole land lay before me, drowsing
-In deepest noonday slumber:
-No twig stirred in the breathless blaze;
-And underneath the boughs no serpent rustled:
-And, in the earth and air,
-Naught waked, save one lone eagle, nigh the sun,
-With wings, unbaffled, beating
-Up the blue, unclouded heavens.
-A dreamless, suave security
-Seemed brooding o'er the valley's golden slumber,
-Whence rang or flashed no hint of lurking peril.
-I dropped to earth,
-And crouching low,
-I stole yet nearer
-Through the brake:
-Till, drawing nigh the cavern-mouth,
-I heard the sound of half-hushed sobbing:
-And then I saw, within the gloom,
-My mother and my sisters clustering round
-My father's body, lying stark and dead,
-A spear-wound in his breast.
-And as I crept to them, they did not hear me,
-Nor ever lift their heads;
-But, shuddering, crouched together,
-With drooping breasts half-hid in falling hair,
-By that familiar form
-In such strange slumber bound.
-Only the baby, on her shoulder slung,
-Saw me, and crowed me greeting,
-As I stooped down to touch my weeping mother,
-Who, turning suddenly,
-With wild tear-fevered eyes;
-Arose with whispered warning;
-But, even then, too late.
-Already, from behind,
-Around my throat
-An arm was flung;
-And heavily I fell:
-Yet, with a desperate wrench,
-I slipped the clutch of my assailant:
-And picking up a slingstone that lay handy,
-I crashed it through his helm;
-And dead he dropped.
-And now upon me all his fellows thronged,
-Like hounds about an antelope;
-And gripped my naked limbs,
-And dragged me down,
-A struggling beast, among them:
-And desperately I fought,
-As fights the boar at bay,
-When all the yelling pack,
-With lathered lips, and white teeth gnashing,
-Is closing in upon him;
-And in his quivering flank, and gasping throat,
-He feels the fangs of death:
-Till, overcome at last,
-They bound me hand and foot,
-With knotted, leathern thongs;
-And dragged me out to where, beneath the trees,
-Trussed in like manner, with defiant eyes,
-My brothers lay, already, side by side.
-They laid me in the shade;
-And flicked my wincing spirit
-With laughter and light words:
-"Now is the roe-buck taken!"
-Then another,
-On whose dark, sullen face there burned a livid weal
-"A buck in flight's a panther brought to bay!"
-And then his fellow:
-"True enough! and yet,
-For such young thews they give good gold--
-They give good gold in Babylon!"
-And, laughing thus, they left us,
-To lie through hours of aching silence,
-Until, at length, the cool of evening fell;
-When they returned from slumber;
-And loosed the ankle-cords that we might stand;
-And bade our mother feed us;
-And she, with tender fingers, held
-The milk-bowl to our parching lips;
-And thrust dried dates betwixt our teeth;
-And wept, to see us standing there,
-With helpless hands, before her.
-Then, bringing out their mules, they saddled them;
-And tied us to the girths on either hand.
-They drove my weeping sisters from the cavern;
-And sought to tear my mother from her home;
-But she escaped them;
-And they let her bide
-Amid the ruins of her life,
-Whose light had dropped, so suddenly,
-From out the highest heavens:
-And, when I turned to look on her,
-And win from her a last farewell,
-I saw her, sitting desolate betwixt
-Her silent husband and her wailing babe,
-With still, strange eyes,
-That stared upon the dead, unseeing,
-While her own children went from her,
-Scarce knowing that they left her, nevermore
-To look upon her face.
-
-Thus, we set out, as over
-The darkening, Southern crags
-The new moon's keen, curved blade was thrust:
-My sisters trooping on before us,
-Like a drove of young gazelles,
-Which, in the dead of night,
-With pards in leash, and torches flaring,
-The hunters have encompassed.
-They moved with timid steps,
-And little runs;
-Stumbling, with stifled cries;
-And starting, panic-shot,
-From every lurking shadow--
-Behind them, terror's lifted lash:
-Before them, ever crouching,
-The horror of the unknown night--
-While, as they moved before us,
-The moonlight shivered off their shrinking shoulders
-And naked, glancing limbs,
-In shimmering, strange beauty.
-And closely on their heels,
-I, with my brothers, foremost in the file,
-Marched, tethered 'twixt the plodding beasts,
-Whose stolid riders sat,
-Each with his javelin on the pummel couched,
-In watchful silence, with dark eyes alert.
-And once, nigh driven crazy
-By the tugging of the thongs,
-I sprang into the air,
-As down a rocky steep we scrambled;
-And strove to burst the galling bonds,
-Or hurl my guards on one another;
-But, all too sure of foot, the beasts,
-And too securely girths and cords
-Held me, and I stumbled.
-Instantly a thong
-Struck my wincing shoulders,
-Blow on thudding blow.
-I bit my lips; and strode on silently;
-Nor fought again for freedom.
-So on we journeyed through the night,
-And down familiar mountain-tracks,
-Through deep, dark forest,
-Ever down and down;
-Fording the streams, whose moon-bright waters flowed,
-In eddies of delicious, aching cool,
-About our weary thighs.
-And, once, when in mid-torrent,
-That swirled, girth-high about the plunging beasts,
-A startled otter, glancing
-Before their very hoofs,
-Affrighted them; and, rearing,
-With blind and desperate floundering,
-They nearly dragged us down to death:
-And, ere we righted,
-With a fearful cry,
-My eldest sister from the bevy broke;
-And struck down-stream
-With wild arm lashing desperately,
-Until the current caught her;
-And she sank, to rise no more.
-And on again we travelled,
-Down through the darkling woodlands:
-And once I saw green, burning eyes,
-Where, on a low-hung bough,
-A night-black panther crouched,
-As though to pounce upon my sisters;
-But, the sudden crack of whips,
-Startling him, he snarled;
-And turned with lashing tail,
-Crashing through dense brushwood.
-
-When, once, again we came unto a clearing,
-The night was near its noon:
-And all the vales that lay before us
-Were filled with moving, moonlit mists,
-That seemed phantasmal waters
-Of that enchanted world,
-Where we, in dreams, sail over still lagoons,
-Throughout eternal night,
-And under unknown stars.
-Still, on we fared, unresting,
-Until the low moon paled;
-When, halting on a mountain-spur,
-We first looked down on Babylon,
-Far in the dreaming West,
-A cluster of dim towers,
-Scarce visible to wearied eyes.
-We camped within a sheltering cedar-grove;
-And all the day, beneath the level boughs,
-Upon the agelong-bedded needles lay,
-Half-slumbering, with fleeting, fretful dreams
-That could not quite forget the chafing cords,
-That held our arms in aching numbness:
-But, ere the noon, in sounder sleep I sank,
-Dreaming I floated on a still, deep pool,
-Beneath dark, overhanging branches;
-And seemed to feel upon my cheek
-The cool caress of waters;
-While, far above me, through the night of trees,
-Noon glimmered faintly as the glint of stars.
-As thus I lay, in indolent ecstasy,
-O'er me, suddenly, the waters
-Curved, and I was dragged,
-Down and down,
-Through gurgling deeps
-Of swirling, drowning darkness...
-When I awoke in terror;
-And strove to sit upright;
-But, tautly, with a jerk,
-The thongs that held me to my brothers,
-Dragged me back to earth.
-
-Awhile I lay, with staring eyes, awake,
-Watching a big, grey spider, crouched overhead,
-In ambush 'neath a twig, beside her web,
-Oft sallying out, to bind yet more securely,
-The half-entangled flies.
-And then, once more, I slumbered;
-And dreamed a face leant over me,
-More fair than any face
-My waking eyes had ever looked upon.
-Its beauty burned above me,
-Not dusky like my sisters' faces,
-But pale as the wan moon,
-Reflected in a flood
-Of darkly flowing waters,
-Or as the creaming froth,
-That, born amid the thunder of the fall,
-Floats on the river's bosom in the sunshine,
-Bubble after bubble,
-Perishing in air.
-So, a moment, over me,
-With frail and fleeting glimmer
-Of strange elusive, evanescent light,
-The holy vision hovered.
-And yet, whenever, with a fervent longing,
-I sought to look into the darkling eyes,
-The face would fade from me,
-As foam caught in an eddy:
-Until, at last, I wakened,
-And, wondering, saw a pale star gleaming
-Betwixt the cedar-branches.
-And soon our captors stirred:
-And we arose, to see
-The walls and towers of Babylon, dark
-Against the clear rose of the afterglow,
-Already in the surge of shadows caught,
-As night, beneath us, slowly Westward swept,
-Flooding the dreaming plain that lay before us,
-Vast, limitless, bewildering,
-And strange to mountain-eyes.
-As down the slope we went,
-And when, at last, we left behind
-The hills and singing waters,
-A vague, oppressive fear
-Of those dim, silent leagues of level land,
-Fell on me; and I almost seemed
-To bear upon my shoulders
-The vaster dome of overwhelming night;
-And, trembling like a child,
-I looked askance at my two captors,
-As they rode on in heedless silence,
-Their swarthy faces sharp
-Against the lucent sky.
-And then, once more,
-The old, familiar watchfires of the stars
-Brought courage to my bosom;
-And the young moon's brilliant horn
-Was exalted in the sky:
-And soon, the glooming wilderness
-Awoke with glittering waters,
-As a friendly wind sang unto me
-Among the swaying reeds:
-While, cloud on cloud,
-The snowy flocks of pelican
-Before our coming rose;
-And, as they swerved to Southward,
-The moonlight shivered off their flashing pinions.
-
-So, on we marched, till dawn, across the plain;
-And, on and on,
-Beneath the waxing moon,
-Each night we travelled Westward;
-Until, at last, we halted
-By the broad dull-gleaming flood
-Of mighty, roaring Tigris;
-And aroused from midnight slumber
-The surly, grumbling ferrymen,
-And crossed the swollen waters
-Upon the great, skin rafts:
-Then on again we fared,
-Until the far, dim towers soared in the dawnlight
-And we encamped beside a stream,
-Beneath dry, rustling palms.
-And heavily I slumbered:
-And only wakened once, at noon,
-When, lifting up my head,
-I saw the towers of Babylon, burning blue,
-Far off, in the blind heat:
-And slept again, till sunset,
-When we took our Westward course
-Along the low bank of a broad canal,
-That glimmered wanly 'neath a moonless sky.
-Higher, and higher still,
-As we drew slowly nearer,
-Arose the vasty walls and serried towers,
-That seemed to thrust among the stars,
-And on embattled summits bear the night,
-Unbowed beneath their burden,
-As easily as, with unruffled brows,
-And limber, upright bodies,
-The village-daughters carry
-At eve the brimming pitchers,
-Poised upon their heads.
-And when, above us, the wide-looming walls
-Shut out the Western stars;
-Beneath their shade, at midnight, we encamped,
-To await till dawn should open
-The city gates for us.
-That night we did not sleep,
-But, crouched upon the ground,
-We watched the moon rise over Babylon,
-Till, far behind us, o'er the glittering waste,
-Was flung the wall's huge shadow,
-And the moving shades of sentries,
-Who, unseen above our heads,
-Paced through the night incessantly.
-Thus long we sat, hushed with awed expectation,
-And gazing o'er the plain that we had travelled,
-As, gradually, the climbing moon,
-Escaping from the clustering towers,
-Revealed far-gleaming waters,
-And the sharp, shrill cry of owls,
-Sweeping by on noiseless plumes,
-Assailed the vasty silence,
-Shivering off like darts
-From some impenetrable shield.
-And, as we waited,
-Sometimes, fearfully,
-I gazed up those stupendous, soaring walls
-Of that great, slumbering city, wondering
-What doom behind the bastioned ramparts slept,
-What destiny, beneath the brooding night,
-Awaited me beyond the brazen gates.
-But, naught the blind, indifferent stars revealed,
-Though towards the long night's ending,
-Half-dazed with gazing up that aching height,
-A drowsiness fell over me,
-And in a restless waking-trance I lay,
-Dreaming that Life and Death before me stood.
-And, as each thrust towards me a shrouded cup,
-Implacable silence bade me choose and drink.
-But, as I stretched a blind, uncertain hand
-To take the cup of death,
-I wakened, and dawn trembled,
-At last, beyond the Eastern hills,
-And, star by star, night failed;
-And eagerly the sun leapt up the sky,
-And, as his flashing rays
-Smote kindling towers and flaming gates of brass,
-Across the reedy moat
-A clattering drawbridge fell,
-And wide the glittering portals slowly swung:
-And there came streaming out in slow procession
-A sleepy caravan of slouching camels,
-Groaning and grumbling as they strode along
-Beneath their mountainous burdens,
-Upon whose swaying summits,
-Impassively, the blue-robed merchants sat.
-They passed us slowly by,
-And then we took the bridge,
-And, while our captors parleyed with the guards,
-Who stood, on either hand,
-With naked swords,
-I turned my head,
-And saw for the last time, far Eastward,
-The cold, snow-brilliant peaks,
-Beyond my dim, blue, native hills.
-And, as I looked, my thoughts flew homeward,
-And I, one dreaming moment,
-Stood by my mourning mother in the cavern
-Of desolation, looking on the dead.
-And then, between the brazen gate-posts,
-And underneath the brazen lintel,
-At last we entered Babylon.
-Before us, yet another wall arose,
-And, turning sharply
-Down a narrow way,
-The living breath of heaven seemed shut from us
-As though beneath the beetling crags
-Of some deep mountain-gorge--
-By cliffs of wall, on either hand,
-That soared up to the narrow sky,
-Which with dim lustre lit
-The shimmering surface of enamelled brick,
-Whereon, through giant groves,
-Blue-coated hunters chased the boar,
-Or 'loosed red-tasselled falcon
-After flying crane.
-But soon we reached another gate,
-Sword-guarded, and we entered,
-And plunged into the traffic
-Of clamorous merchantmen,
-Speeding their business ere the heat of day.
-And as we jostled, slowly,
-Through bewildering bazaars,
-The porters and the idler wayfarers
-All turned to look upon our shame,
-With cold, unpitying eyes,
-And indolent, gaping mouths,
-Or jested with our captors,
-Until we left the busier thoroughfares,
-And walked through groves of cypress and of ilex,
-Where not a sound or rumour troubled
-The silence of the dark-plumed boughs
-And glimmering deeps of peace,
-Save only the cool spurt of waters
-That, from a myriad unseen jets,
-Fretted the crystal airs of morning,
-And fell in frolic showers
-Of twinkling, rainbow drops,
-That plashed in unseen basins;
-And through the blaze of almond-orchards,
-Tremulous with blossom
-That flickered in a rosy, silken snow
-Of falling petals over us,
-And wreathed about our feet
-In soft and scented drifts;
-Beneath pomegranate trees in young, green leaf,
-And through vast gardens, glowing with strange flowers,
-Such as no April kindled into bloom
-Among the valleys of my native hills.
-We came unto a court of many fountains,
-Where, leaping off their jaded mules,
-Our captors loosed the thongs that held us,
-But left our wrists still bound.
-And one with great clay pitchers came,
-And over our hot bodies, travel-stained,
-Poured out cool, cleansing waters
-In a gurgling, crystal stream,
-And flung coarse robes of indigo
-About our naked shoulders.
-And here we left behind us
-The maidens and the younger boys,
-And passing through a gateway,
-Came out upon a busy wharf,
-Where, southward, midway through the city,
-The broad Euphrates flows,
-His dark flood thronged with merchant-dhows,
-And fishing-boats of reed and bitumen,
-Piled high with glistering barbel, freshly-caught;
-And foreign craft, with many-coloured sails,
-And laden deep with precious merchandise,
-That, over wide, bewildering waters,
-Across the perilous world,
-The adventurous, dark-bearded mariners,
-Who swear by unknown gods in alien tongues,
-Bring ever to the gates of Babylon.
-We crossed the drawbridge, round whose granite piers
-Swirled strong, Spring-swollen waters,
-Loud and tawny,
-And, through great brazen portals,
-Passed within the palace gates,
-When first I saw afar the hanging-gardens,
-Arch on arch,
-And tier on tier,
-Against a glowing sky.
-Two strapping Nubians, like young giants
-Hewn from blue-black marble
-By some immortal hand in immemorial ages,
-Led us slowly onward.
-The dappled pard-skins, slung across their shoulders,
-Scarcely hid the ox-like thews,
-Beneath the dark skin rippling,
-As they strode along before us.
-Through courts of alabaster,
-And painted corridors,
-
-And chambers fair with flowery tapestries
-They led us, wondering, till at last we came
-Into a vast, dim hall of glimmering gold,
-The end of all our journeying.
-And, as we halted on the threshold,
-My eyes could see but little for a moment,
-In the dusky, heavy air,
-Through the ceaseless cloud of incense,
-Rising from the smouldering braziers
-To the gold, grey-clouded dome,
-Tingling strangely in my nostrils,
-As I came from morning airs;
-Then slowly filling them with drowsy fume,
-When, looking up with half-dazed eyes,
-I saw the King upon his golden throne:
-And through my body
-Raged rebellious blood,
-In baffled riot beating
-At my corded wrists,
-As if to burst the galling bonds,
-That I might hurl that lean, swart face,
-So idly turning towards us,
-With thin curled lips,
-And cold, incurious eyes,
-To headlong death--
-Yea! even though I tumbled
-The towers of Babylon round about my head.
-And, when our captors bowed their foreheads low,
-Obsequious to the throne,
-I stood upright,
-And gazed my loathing on that listless form--
-The gay, embroidered robe,
-The golden cap, that prankt the crisped locks,
-The short, square beard, new-oiled and barbered--
-But, in a flash,
-A heavy blow
-Fell on my head,
-And struck me to my knees
-Before the sleek, indifferent king.
-And then, on either hand,
-With gripping palms upon my shoulders set,
-The Nubians towered above me
-Like mighty men of stone.
-And savagely I struggled,
-Half-stunned, to rise again;
-When, as I vainly battled
-In their unrelenting clutch,
-My eyes lit for the first time on the Queen,
-Who sat upon the dais, by her lord
-Half-shadowed, on a throne of ivory,
-And all the hate died in me, as I saw
-The face that hovered over me in dream,
-When I had slept beneath the low-boughed cedar:
-The moon-pale brows, o'er which the clustered hair
-Hung like the smoke of torches, ruddy-gold,
-Against a canopy of peacock plumes:
-The deep brown, burning eyes,
-From which the soul looked on me in fierce pity.
-And, as I gazed on that exultant beauty,
-The hunter and the slayer of men
-Was slain within me instantly,
-And I forgot the mountains and my home;
-My desolate mother, and my father's death;
-My captive sisters ... and the throned King!
-I was as one, that moment,
-New-born into the world
-Full-limbed and thewed,
-Yet, with the wondering heart
-Of earth-bewildered childhood.
-And, unto me, it seemed
-That, as the Queen looked down on me,
-There stole into her eyes
-Some dim remembrance of old dreams,
-That in their brown depths flickered
-With strange, elusive light,
-Like stars that tremble in still forest-pools.
-One spake--
-I scarce knew whom, nor cared--
-And bade me choose,
-Before the throne,
-Between a life of slavery,
-Or merciful, swift death--
-Death, that but a moment since,
-I would have dragged, exulting, on me--
-And with my eyes still set on the Queen's face,
-I answered:
-"I will serve":
-And scarcely heeded that my wrists were loosed.
-
-And, huddled in a stifling hut,
-That night, among my fellows,
-I could not sleep at all:
-But gazed, wild-eyed, till dawn upon that face,
-Which hovered o'er me, like the moon of dreams;
-And seemed to draw the wandering tides of life
-In one vast wave, which ever strove
-To climb the heavens wherein she moved,
-That it might break in triumphing foam about her.
-Not then, nor ever afterwards,
-Was I a slave, among my fellow-slaves,
-But one, who, with mean drudgery,
-And daily penance serves
-Before a holy altar,
-That, sometimes, as he labours, his glad eyes
-May catch a gleam of the immortal light
-Within the secret shrine;
-Yea! and, maybe, shall look, one day, with trembling,
-On the bright-haired, imperishable god.
-And, even when, day after day,
-I bore the big reed-baskets, laden
-With wet clay, digged beyond the Western moat,
-Although I seemed to tread,
-As treads the ox that turns the water-wheel,
-A blindfold round of servitude,
-My quenchless vision ever burned before me:
-And when, in after days, I fed
-The roaring oven-furnaces;
-And toiled by them through sweltering days,
-Though over me, at times, would come
-Great longing for the hill-tops,
-And the noise of torrent-waters:
-Or when, more skilled, I moulded
-The damp clay into bricks;
-And spread the colour and the glaze;
-And in strength-giving heat of glowing kilns,
-I baked them durable,
-Clean-shaped, and meet for service:
-My vision flamed yet brighter;
-And unto me it seemed
-As if my gross and useless clay were burned
-In a white ecstasy of lustral fire,
-That, in the fashioning of the house of love,
-I might serve perfectly the builder's need.
-Thus, many months, I laboured;
-Till, one day, at the noontide hour of rest,
-I lay; and with a sharpened reed--
-As temple-scribes write down the holy lore
-On tablets of wet clay--
-On the moist earth beside me,
-I limned a young fawn, cropping
-A bunch of tender, overhanging leaves.
-And, as I slowly drew,
-I dreamt a little sadly of the days,
-When I, too, roamed, untethered,
-And drinking in, unquestioning,
-The sunshine and the air,
-And all the rapture of the earth that turns,
-New every morning to the wondering sun,
-Refashioned in still nights of starry dews:
-But one, the while, unseen of me,
-Watched my unconscious hand, approving:
-And I was set, next morning,
-Among the craftsmen, who so deftly limned
-The hunts and battles for the palace walls.
-And, happily, with them I lived
-A life of loving labour, for each line
-Flowed from the knowledge of my heart:
-I drew the startled ostrich
-Fleeing from the far-flung noose:
-The brindled lynx; the onaga
-In dewy-plashing flight;
-The bristling boar, at bay,
-Crouched in a deadly ring of threatening spears,
-With streaming nostrils, and red eyes ablaze;
-The striped hyaena; the gaunt, green-eyed wolf;
-The skulking jackal; the grey, brush-tailed fox;
-The hunting leopard and the antelope,
-In mid-chase tense,
-With every thew astrain;
-The dappled panther; the brown-eyed gazelle,
-Butting with black horns through the tangled brake
-The nimble hare, alert, with pricked-up ears;
-The tiger, crouched, with yellow eyes afire;
-The shaggy mountain-goat,
-Perched on the utmost crag,
-Against the afterglow of lucent ruby,
-Or, poised with bunching hoofs
-In mid-spring over a dark, yawning chasm;
-Or the black stallion, with his tameless troop,
-Fording a mountain-river in the dawn.
-And, sometimes, as we toiled,
-A terrible fleeting rapture
-Would come upon me, when the Queen
-Passed by us with her maidens;
-Or paused, a moment, gazing,
-With tranced and kindling eyes upon our labours:
-But never did I dare, at any time,
-To lift my eyes to hers,
-And look, as soul on soul,
-As on the day her beauty brought to birth
-The strange new life within me.
-In silence she would ever leave us;
-And ever with her passing perished
-The light and colour of my work;
-So that my heart failed, daunted by that glimpse
-Of the ever-living beauty.
-And, sometimes, I would carve in ruddy teak,
-Or ivory, from the Indian merchants bought,
-Or in the rare, black basalt, little beasts
-To please the idle fancies of the King;
-Or model in wet clay, and cast in bronze,
-Great bulls and lions for the palace-courts;
-Or carve him seals of lapis-lazuli,
-Of jasper, amethyst and serpentine,
-Chalcedony--carnelian, chrysoprase,
-Agate, sardonyx, and chalcedonyx--
-Green jade, and alabaster;
-Or cut in stones that flashed and flickered
-Like a glancing kingfisher,
-Or, in the sun-filled amber,
-The kite with broad wings spread,
-Or little fluttering doves that pecked
-A golden bunch of dates:
-And then of these in settings of fine gold
-Made fillets, rings and ear-rings.
-
-Thus, one day,
-Dreaming, as ever, of the Queen,
-I wrought a golden serpent for her hair:
-And when I brought it to the King, next morn,
-Where he sat brooding over chess,
-He bade me bear it to the Queen, myself,
-And so, I went unto her, where she sat,
-Among her singing maidens, at the loom,
-Weaving a silken web of Tyrian dye.
-I laid the trinket at her feet, in silence:
-And she arose, and set it in her hair,
-Whose living lustre far outshone
-The cold, dead metal I had fashioned,
-As she stood before me, dreaming,
-In her robe of flowing blue;
-Then looked a moment on me with kind eyes.
-And though she spoke no word,
-I turned, and fled, in trembling,
-Before the light that shivered through me,
-And struck my soul with shuddering ecstasy:
-And, still, through many days,
-Although I did not look again
-Upon those dreaming eyes,
-Their visionary light
-Within my soul, revealed eternity.
-
-Thus, have the mortal years
-Flowed onward to the perfect end--
-This day of days,
-That never night shall quench,
-Nor darkness vanquish:
-And, at dawn,
-I die.
-
-And yet, this morning, as I slowly climbed
-The steep, ascending stages
-That lead up to the hanging-gardens--
-Where, tier on tier,
-The great brick arches bore
-Their April wealth of blossoms,
-Plumed with palm and dusky cypress--
-I little knew that I
-Who came to carve a garland
-Round a fountain's porphry basin,
-Should scale so soon the utmost peak of life.
-Throughout the morn I toiled,
-Until an hour ere noon--
-For no one, save the King and Queen,
-May walk in those high gardens, after midday--
-When, underneath a cypress shade,
-I paused, a moment, resting;
-And looking down upon the basking city,
-Beneath me slumbering deeply--
-Garden on garden glowing, grove on grove,
-Like some green fabric, shot with myriad hues,
-And chequered with white clusters of flat roofs,
-Aquiver in clear heat:
-And then I gazed up through the aching azure,
-At the restless kites that hover
-Ever over Babylon:
-And, as I watched one broad-winged bird that hung
-Above the seven-coloured pyramid
-Of Bel's great temple,
-With wide pinions spread,
-As though it kept eternal vigil over
-The golden image in the golden shrine,
-I thought of eagles poised
-Above the peaks of glittering snows,
-Beyond the Eastern plains.
-Half-dreaming, thus, I lay,
-Lulled by the tinkling waters,
-Till, unawares, sleep slowly overcame me;
-And noonday drifted by:
-And still, I slept, unheeding:
-And, in my sleep,
-I looked on Beauty in a quiet place
-Of forest gloom and immemorial dream:
-When, something rousing me from slumber,
-With waking eyes that yet seemed dream-enchanted,
-I looked upon the Queen,
-Where, in a secret close,
-Set thickly round with screens of yew and ilex,
-She stood upon the dark, broad brim
-Of a wide granite basin, gazing down,
-With dreaming eyes, into the glooming cool,
-Unraimented, save of the flickering gleam,
-Reflected from the lucent waters,
-That flowed before her silently:
-And slowly, from her feet,
-The cold light rippled up her body, till,
-Entangled in the meshes of her hair,
-It flooded the calm rapture of her face:
-When, dreaming still, she lifted up her eyes,
-Unseeing; and I looked upon her soul,
-Unveiled, in naked immortality,
-Untrammelled by the trappings of brief time,
-And cloaks of circumstance.
-How long I looked upon the perfect beauty,
-I cannot tell--
-Each moment, flowing to eternity,
-Bearing me further from time's narrow shores;
-Though, yet, a little while,
-From those unshadowed deeps time sought to hold me.
-
-Suddenly, I felt
-A ghostly arrow pierce my life;
-And I leapt up, and turning,
-I saw the King beside me,
-With steely, glittering eyes
-Shooting barbed anger,
-Though he coldly spake,
-With evil, curling lips:
-"Slave, thou art dead!"
-And yet I did not quail:
-But, looking 'twixt his brows,
-I answered: and he blenched before my words:
-"Nay!  I have seen:
-"And am newborn, a King!"
-And then his craven fingers
-Went quaking to his wagging beard,
-As if he felt my clutch upon his throat:
-Yet, though, with one quick blow,
-I might have hurled him down to death,
-I never stirred:
-And, eyeing me, he summoned
-The negro-eunuchs, who kept watch below:
-But I, ere they could spring up the first stage,
-Went forth to meet them;
-And they bound my wrists.
-
-And so, down from the hills, my life has flowed,
-Until, at fullest flood, it meets the sea.
-With calm and unregretful heart, I wait
-Till dawn shall loose the arrow from the bow.
-I, who, with eager, faltering hand have sought
-To fashion a little beauty, in the end,
-Have looked on the perfect beauty, and I die--
-Even as the priest, who, in the heart of night,
-Trembling before the thunder-riven shrine,
-Looks on the face of God, and perishes.
-I die...
-And yet, maybe, when earth lies heavily
-Upon the time-o'ertoppled towers,
-And tumbled walls, and broken gates of brass;
-And the winds whisper one another:
-"Where, Oh! where is Babylon?"
-In the dim underworld of dreaming shades,
-My soul shall seek out beauty
-And look, once more,
-Upon the unveiled vision...
-And not die.
-
-Night passes: and already in the court,
-Amid the plash of fountains,
-There sounds the pad of naked feet approaching.
-With slow, deliberate pace,
-As though they trod out all my perished years,
-The Nubians come, to lead me out to death.
-Slowly the great door opens;
-And clearer comes the call of waters;
-Cool airs are on my brow ...
-Lo! ... in the East, the dawn.
-
-
-
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