Poems (Laflin)/Lament of an Arabian Slave Girl

by Ellen P. Laflin

LAMENT OF AN ARABIAN SLAVE GIRL.

ARABIA mine, so far away,
Thee have I not seen for many a day;
Though I long for my distant desert home,
I now must wander the world alone.

In memory I am home once more
Where the gold sands carpet the desert floor,
For a sister of the sun am I,
All night 'neath the heavens blue did I lie.

For men may sleep behind iron bars,
But I would sleep in my tent of stars,
Where the sighing night wind that one hears
Is melody sweet to Arab ears.

Where the burning simoon sweeps,
Where the moon her vigil keeps,
There was I born in Araby,
The land which I never more shall see.

Free as the bird which wings its flight
Through the desert air and the silent night,
Free was my life as life could be,
Free was my love as the boundless sea.

Fettered am I who was once so proud,
Now is my head with sorrow bowed,
But free is my soul as the vaulted dome,
Free till it mounts to its heavenly home.