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96
Omariana
I
One cup of joy before the banquet ends!
One thought for vanish'd, for transfigur'd friends,
Stars on the living cope of heaven emboss'd,—
The heaven of love which o'er us beams and bends.
One thought for vanish'd, for transfigur'd friends,
Stars on the living cope of heaven emboss'd,—
The heaven of love which o'er us beams and bends.
Roses and bay for many a phantom head!
Death is but what we make it—for the dead;
Held fast in memory, those we've loved and lost
Shall live while blood is warm and wine is red.
Death is but what we make it—for the dead;
Held fast in memory, those we've loved and lost
Shall live while blood is warm and wine is red.
July 1895.
97
II
While
Zál and Rustum drew their thunderous line
Across the rolling veldts that shift and shine,
Or marching down the long sun-bitten road
Went wheeling round Rhinocerosfontejn,
Across the rolling veldts that shift and shine,
Or marching down the long sun-bitten road
Went wheeling round Rhinocerosfontejn,
We, laagered safe from all our shadowy foes,
Performed our rites and waved the double rose,
Feasted in innocently Persian mode,
And told the Master—what the Master knows.
Performed our rites and waved the double rose,
Feasted in innocently Persian mode,
And told the Master—what the Master knows.
In peace we drank: yet never might forget
With what rare wine the wilderness was wet,
What vintage, pour'd for us, the withering grass
Held to our glory and eternal debt.
With what rare wine the wilderness was wet,
What vintage, pour'd for us, the withering grass
Held to our glory and eternal debt.
Nor will forget! Yet are we folk of peace;
We long to hear the ringing warfare cease;
Then o'er our feast a purpler flush will pass
When Zál comes home with Rustum from the seas.
We long to hear the ringing warfare cease;
Then o'er our feast a purpler flush will pass
When Zál comes home with Rustum from the seas.
April 1900.
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