III

THE KASÎDAH III — • — Cease, Man, to mourn, to weep, to wail; enjoy thy shining hour of sun; We dance along Death’s icy brink, but is the dance less full of fun?

THE KASÎDAH III — • — Dost not, O Maker, blush to hear, amid the storm of tears and blood, Man say Thy mercy made what is, and saw the made and said ’twas good? The marvel is that man can smile dreaming his ghostly ghastly dream;— Better the heedless atomy that buzzes in the … Read more

THE KASÎDAH III — • — When swift the Camel-rider spans the howling waste, by Kismet sped, And of his Magic Wand a wave hurries the quick to join the dead.* How sore the burden, strange the strife; how full of splendour, wonder, fear; Life, atom of that Infinite Space that stretcheth ’twixt the Here … Read more

THE KASÎDAH III — • — We live our lives with rogues and fools, dead and alive, alive and dead, We die ’twixt one who feels the pulse and one who frets and clouds the head: And,—oh, the Pity!—hardly conned the lesson comes its fatal term; Fate bids us bundle up our books, and bear … Read more

THE KASÎDAH III — • — Such general joy could never fade; and yet the chilling whisper came One face had paled, one form had failed; had fled the bank, had swum the stream; Still revellers danced, and sang, and trod the hither bank of Time’s deep tide, Still one by one they left and … Read more

THE KASÎDAH III — • — A drop in Ocean’s boundless tide, unfathom’d waste of agony; Where millions live their horrid lives by making other millions die. How with a heart that would through love to Universal Love aspire, Man woos infernal chance to smite, as Min’arets draw the Thunder-fire. How Earth on Earth builds … Read more

THE KASÎDAH III — • — This House whose frame be flesh and bone, mortar’d with blood and faced with skin, The home of sickness, dolours, age; unclean without, impure within: Sans ray to cheer its inner gloom, the chambers haunted by the Ghost, Darkness his name, a cold dumb Shade stronger than all the … Read more

THE KASÎDAH III — • — How Life was nought but ray of sun that clove the darkness thick and blind, The ravings of the reckless storm, the shrieking of the rav’ening wind; How lovely visions ’guiled his sleep, aye fading with the break of morn, Till every sweet became a sour, till every rose … Read more

THE KASÎDAH III — • — Who comes imbecile to the world ’mid double danger, groans, and tears; The toy, the sport, the waif and stray of passions, error, wrath and fears; Who knows not Whence he came nor Why, who kens not Whither bound and When, Yet such is Allah’s choicest gift, the blessing … Read more

THE KASÎDAH III — • — FIE, fie! you visionary things, ye motes that dance in sunny glow, Who base and build Eternities on briefest moment here below; Who pass through Life liked cagèd birds, the captives of a despot will; Still wond’ring How and When and Why, and Whence and Whither, wond’ring still; Still … Read more