 | Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and minor poems |  |
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PREFACE.
1
Romance who loves to nod and singWith drowsy head and folded wing
Among the green leaves as they shake
Far down within some shadowy lake
To me a painted paroquet
Hath been—a most familiar bird—
Taught me my alphabet to say—
To lisp my very earliest word
While in the wild wood I did lie
A child—with a most knowing eye.
2
Of late, eternal Condor yearsSo shake the very air on high
With tumult, as they thunder by,
I hardly have had time for cares
Thro' gazing on th' unquiet sky!
And, when an hour with calmer wings
Its down upon my spirit flings—
That little time with lyre and rhyme
To while away—forbidden things!
My heart would feel to be a crime
Did it not tremble with the strings!
| Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and minor poems | |