Page 120 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor

unbounded. Taylor bore their abuse well enough, but he was heartily
ashamed of the reputation which the poem brought him.

CHAPTER XI

"POEMS OF THE ORIENT"

During the months he spent in Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, Bayard Taylor
wrote his "Poems of the Orient," of which Mr. Stoddard says, "I thought,

and I think so still when I read these spirited and picturesque poems, that
Bayard Taylor had captured the poetic secret of the East as no

English-writing poet but Byron had. He knew the East as no one can
possibly know it from books."

Certainly these poems of the East have a haunting ring that can never be
forgotten. What more stirring than this Bedouin love song!

From the desert I come to thee On a stallion shod with fire; And the winds
are left behind

In the speed of my desire. Under thy window I stand, And the midnight

hears my cry: I love thee, I love but thee, With a love that shall not die,
_Till the sun grows cold, And the stars are old, And the leaves of the
Judgment Book unfold_!

Or what more grand and affectionate than this from "Hassan to his Mare":

Come, my beauty! come, my desert darling! On my shoulder lay thy glossy
head! Fear not, though the barley-sack be empty, Here's the half of Hassan's

scanty bread.

Thou shalt have thy share of dates, my beauty! And thou know'st my
water-skin is free; Drink and welcome, for the wells are distant, And my
strength and safety lie in thee.