Persian, you rise Aflame from climes of sacrifice Where adulators sue, And prostrate man, with brow abased, Adheres to rites whose tenor traced All worship hitherto. Arch type of sway, Meetly your over-ruling ray You fling from Asia's plain, Whence flashed the javelins abroad Of many a wild incursive horde Led by some shepherd Cain. Mid terrors dinned Gods too came conquerors from your Ind, The brood of Bramha throve; They came like to the scythed car, Westward they rolled their empire far, Of night their purple wove. Chemist, you breed In orient climes each sorcerous weed That energizes dream -- Transmitted, spread in myths and creeds, Houris and hells, delirious screeds And Calvin's last extreme. What though your light In time's first dawn compelled the flight of Chaos' startled clan, Shall never all your darted spears Disperse worse Anarchs, frauds and fears, Sprung from these weeds to man? But Science yet An effluence ampler shall beget, And power beyond your play -- Shall quell the shades you fail to rout, Yea, searching every secret out Elucidate your ray. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR ODE TO THE MAGUIRE by EOCHADH O'HUSSEY THE FLIGHT OF LOVE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY A BALLAD OF LIFE by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE LITTLE BOATIE'; A SLUMBER SONG FOR THE FISHERMAN'S CHILD by HENRY VAN DYKE SONNET: 5 by RICHARD BARNFIELD GOODFRYDAY (TO A BASE AND TWO TREBLES) by JOSEPH BEAUMONT |