Page 121 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor

Bend thy forehead now, to take my kisses! Lift in love thy dark and
splendid eye: Thou art glad when Hassan mounts the saddle,-- Thou art

proud he owns thee: so am I.

Let the Sultan bring his boasted horses, Prancing with their
diamond-studded reins; They, my darling, shall not match thy fleetness
When they course with thee the desert plains!

Let the Sultan bring his famous horses, Let him bring his golden swords to

me,-- Bring his slaves, his eunuchs, and his harem; He would offer them in
vain for thee.

We have seen Damascus, O my beauty! And the splendor of the Pashas
there: What's their pomp and riches? Why, I would not Take them for a

handful of thy hair!

Another stirring poem of the East is "Tyre."

The wild and windy morning is lit with lurid fire; The thundering surf of

ocean beats on the rocks of Tyre,-- Beats on the fallen columns and round
the headlands roars, And hurls its foamy volume along the hollow shores,
And calls with hungry clamor, that speaks its long desire: "Where are the

ships of Tarshish, the mighty ships of Tyre?"

In his "L'Envoi" at the end of these poems, Bayard Taylor gives us a hint of
his meaning when he spoke of his "southern nature" as distinguished from
his "northern nature."

I found, among those Children of the Sun, The cipher of my nature,--the

release Of baffled powers, which else had never won That free fulfillment,
whose reward is peace.

For not to any race or any clime Is the complete sphere of life revealed; He
who would make his own that round sublime, Must pitch his tent on many a

distant field.