Page:General William Booth enters into Heaven, and other poems.djvu/30

14 ON READING OMAR KHAYYAM

[During an anti-saloon campaign, in central Illinois.]

N the midst of the battle I turned, (For the thunders could flourish without me) And hid by a rose-hung wall, Forgetting the murder about me; And wrote, from my wound, on the stone, In mirth, half prayer, half play:&mdash; "Send me a picture book, Send me a song, to-day."

I saw him there by the wall When I scarce had written the line, In the enemy's colors dressed And the serpent-standard of wine Writhing its withered length From his ghostly hand o'er the ground, And there by his shadowy breast The glorious poem I found.

This was his world-old cry: Thus read the famous prayer: