200
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
THE MOURNER FOR THE BARMECIDES.
O good old man! how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world!
Thou art not for the fashion of these times.
As You Like It.
Fallen was the House of Giafar; and its name,
The high romantic name of Barmecide,
A sound forbidden on its own bright shores,
By the swift Tygris' wave. Stern Haroun's wrath,
Sweeping the mighty with their fame away,
Had so pass'd sentence: but man's chainless heart
Hides that within its depths, which never yet
Th' oppressor's thought could reach.
