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- float: left; - margin-right: 1em } - -.align-right { clear: right; - float: right; - margin-left: 1em } - -.align-center { margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto } - -div.shrinkwrap { display: table; } - -/* SECTIONS */ - -body { margin: 5% 10% 5% 10% } - -/* compact list items containing just one p */ -li p.pfirst { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0 } - -.first { margin-top: 0 !important; - text-indent: 0 !important } -.last { margin-bottom: 0 !important } - -span.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 1 } -img.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.5em 0 0; max-width: 25% } -span.dropspan { font-variant: small-caps } - -.no-page-break { page-break-before: avoid !important } - -/* PAGINATION */ - -@media screen { - .coverpage, .frontispiece, .titlepage, .verso, .dedication, .plainpage - { margin: 10% 0; } - - div.clearpage, div.cleardoublepage - { margin: 10% 0; border: none; border-top: 1px solid gray; } - - .vfill { margin: 5% 10% } -} - -@media print { - div.clearpage { page-break-before: always; padding-top: 10% } - div.cleardoublepage { page-break-before: right; padding-top: 10% } - - .vfill { margin-top: 20% } - h2.title { margin-top: 20% } -} - -</style> -<title>AKRA THE SLAVE</title> -<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" /> -<meta name="PG.Title" content="Akra the Slave" /> -<meta name="PG.Producer" content="Al Haines" /> -<link rel="coverpage" href="images/img-cover.jpg" /> -<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Wilfrid Wilson Gibson" /> -<meta name="DC.Created" content="1910" /> -<meta name="PG.Id" content="42051" /> -<meta name="PG.Released" content="2013-02-08" /> -<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> -<meta name="DC.Title" content="Akra the Slave" /> - -<link href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" rel="schema.DCTERMS" /> -<link href="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators" rel="schema.MARCREL" /> -<meta content="Akra the Slave" name="DCTERMS.title" /> -<meta content="akra.rst" name="DCTERMS.source" /> -<meta content="en" scheme="DCTERMS.RFC4646" name="DCTERMS.language" /> -<meta content="2013-02-09T03:05:56.114274+00:00" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.modified" /> -<meta content="Project Gutenberg" name="DCTERMS.publisher" /> -<meta content="Public Domain in the USA." name="DCTERMS.rights" /> -<link href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42051" rel="DCTERMS.isFormatOf" /> -<meta content="Wilfrid Wilson Gibson" name="DCTERMS.creator" /> -<meta content="2013-02-08" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.created" /> -<meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport" /> -<meta content="EpubMaker 0.3.20a5 by Marcello Perathoner <webmaster@gutenberg.org>" name="generator" /> -<style type="text/css"> -.pageno { position: absolute; right: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; text-indent: 0 } -.pageno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } -.lineno { position: absolute; left: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; text-indent: 0 } -.lineno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } -.toc-pageref { float: right } -pre { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap } -</style> -</head> -<body> -<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 language-en pgheader" id="pg-header" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<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> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</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> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span></span></p> -</div> -<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"> </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> -<p class="pfirst" id="pg-end-line"><span>*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK </span><span>AKRA THE SLAVE</span><span> ***</span></p> -<div class="cleardoublepage"> -</div> -<div class="language-en level-2 pgfooter section" id="a-word-from-project-gutenberg" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<span id="pg-footer"></span><h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><span>A Word from Project Gutenberg</span></h2> -<p class="pfirst"><span>We will update this book if we find any errors.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>This book can be found under: </span><a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42051"><span>http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42051</span></a></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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