RARE was the cloud by Volga's stream When morning over Asia shone — The cloud that caught its crimson beam And sailed o'er earth and sky supreme, Wrapped in a fiery-purple gleam; An eagle from the Oural blown, A messenger of bliss or ban With wide wings drifting past Kazan! And dome and cross and minaret A moment in its bloom were set; Then flame and purple paled to gray And down the steppe dissolved in day. When sunset's wide resplendent glow O'er Tyre and Sidon faded slow Through gold and rose and violet Till Sharon's plain with dew was wet And the hills darkened, one by one, And night came down on Lebanon — That hour like gates of Paradise The peaks of Hermon barred the skies And zephyrs lulled the pulsing air Till mount and vale seemed lost in prayer; — From Moab to the northern strand 'Twas Holy Land, 'twas Holy Land! Rich are the hues that flush and steep In twilight grandeur Egypt's river, When cool the winds from Philæe creep Past Karnak's immemorial sleep And Memnon's watchers fain to keep Their gaze adown the east forever! While weird the pyramids recline, Wan forms against the golden shine, And through the orange dusk the plain Dims to the desert and the main. Ah, cloud and peak and stream, for me Ye glow and glide eternally! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CURFEW MUST NOT RING TONIGHT by ROSE HARTWICK THORPE IN THE GALLERY by WILLIAM ROSE BENET AN EPISTLE by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) AN INVITATION TO THE COUNTRY by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE CARLE OF KELLYBURN BRAES by ROBERT BURNS THE SUN-THIEF by RHYS CARPENTER |