Betwixt Two Seas Poems and Ballads (Written at Constantinople and Therapia). By Violet Fane [i.e. M. M. Lamb] |
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IN AN ARABA
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 | Betwixt Two Seas |  |
40
IN AN ARABA
“Oh, Araba-ji, urge on your steeds
That hang their heads and crawl!
I am not a Turk to thus brook delay,
But a Christian traveller on his way
To look at the old town-wall!”
That hang their heads and crawl!
I am not a Turk to thus brook delay,
But a Christian traveller on his way
To look at the old town-wall!”
“Effendi, where you are seated now,
—Proud as you well may be,—
Last night were the corpses piled by the score,
And 'twas I who drove them down to the shore
To be weighted and cast in the sea;
—Proud as you well may be,—
Last night were the corpses piled by the score,
And 'twas I who drove them down to the shore
To be weighted and cast in the sea;
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“And so fast was I bidden to drive the dead
Whilst plying to and fro
From Prison to Point, 'neath the waning moon,
That to-day, perforce, in the eye of noon,
I must drive the living slow!”
Whilst plying to and fro
From Prison to Point, 'neath the waning moon,
That to-day, perforce, in the eye of noon,
I must drive the living slow!”
| Betwixt Two Seas | |