Page:Records of Woman.pdf/93

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There wandered a noble Moslem boy Thro' the scene of beauty in breathless joy; He gazed where the stately city rose Like a pageant of clouds in its red repose; He turn'd where birds thro' the gorgeous gloom Of the woods went glancing on starry plume; He track'd the brink of the shining lake, By the tall canes feathered in tuft and brake, Till the path he chose, in its mazes wound To the very heart of the holy ground.

And there lay the water, as if enshrin'd In a rocky urn from the sun and wind, Bearing the hues of the grove on high, Far down thro' its dark still purity. The flood beyond, to the fiery west Spread out like a metal-mirror's breast, But that lone bay, in its dimness deep, Seem'd made for the swimmer's joyous leap,