Page:Lalla Rookh - Moore - 1817.djvu/21

 Their weapons various--some equipt for speed, With javelins of the light Kathaian reed; Or bows of buffalo horn and shining quivers Filled with the stems that bloom on IRAN'S rivers; While some, for war's more terrible attacks, Wield the huge mace and ponderous battle-axe; And as they wave aloft in morning's beam The milk-white plumage of their helms, they seem Like a chenar-tree grove when winter throws O'er all its tufted heads his feathery snows.

Between the porphyry pillars that uphold The rich moresque-work of the roof of gold, Aloft the Haram's curtained galleries rise, Where thro' the silken net-work, glancing eyes, From time to time, like sudden gleams that glow Thro' autumn clouds, shine o'er the pomp below.-- What impious tongue, ye blushing saints, would dare To hint that aught but Heaven hath placed you there? Or that the loves of this light world could bind, In their gross chain, your Prophet's soaring mind?