Page:Al Aaraaf (1933).djvu/54

On th' Arabesq' carving of a gilded hall
    Wherein I sate, and on the drap'ried wall –
    And on my eyelids – O! the heavy light!
    How drowsily it weigh'd them into night!
    On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran
    With Persian Saadi in his Gulistan:
    But O! that light! – I slumber'd – Death, the while,
    Stole o'er my senses in that lovely isle
    So softly that no single silken hair
    Awoke that slept – or knew that he was there.

    "The last spot of Earth's orb I trod upon
    ^[1]Was a proud temple call'd the Parthenon;
    More beauty clung around her column'd wall
    ^[2]Than ev'n thy glowing bosom beats withal,
    And when old Time my wing did disenthral
    Thence sprang I – as the eagle from his tower,
    And years I left behind me in an hour.
    What time upon her airy bounds I hung,
    One half the garden of her globe was flung

 

1. It was entire in 1687 – the most elevated spot in Athens.
2. Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows
       Than have the white breasts of the Queen of Love. — Marlowe.