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wall are paling, The mountains in the evening light are red, The moon has dropped into the moat from heaven, A spell barbaric over all is spread. But what is that to him, a stranger lonely, In a land strange to all his faith and dim? He cares not for old splendours, he would only Hear on the air a simple Sabbath hymn. The paddy-birds their snowy flight are taking From the tall tamarind unto their nest, The bullock-carts along the road are creaking, The bugles o'er the wall are sounding rest. On a calm jetty looking off to Mecca Sons of Mahomet watch the low day's rim. He too is waiting for it--with an echo Upon his lips of a believer's hymn. The red gate-towers rise against the twilight, The palace of the heathen king is hid, The white bridge bent across the moat beside it Seems now of all unholinesses rid. He wishes it were so with all this city Whose Buddha-built pagodas skyward swim; But he can only gaze on them and pity-- And sing within his heart a Christian hymn. THE PARSEE WOMAN (_At Bombay_) Cast me out from among you, I will not see my child Laid aloft where the vultures May clamour for him, wild! The earth you say is holy, Not to be soiled by death, And a Parsee still should hold divine What Zoroaster saith. Ay, and so I will hold it, But see his pale sweet face, As pure as the palest flower Left dead in Spring's embrace. The sun we worship daily Shrined it for seven years, Then shall it go to cruel beaks, There where the sea-wind veers? No, no, no! tho you send me A beggar from your door, You, my lord, whom I honour, And you, his sisters four, To whom there have come no children To make your bosoms feel How even a thought so full of throe Can make my sick brain reel. Ah, you are deaf? you scorn me And loathe, as a thing defiled? My lord, I am but a woman Who longs to see her child Laid in a tomb, entreasured Under the shrouding sod. O would I had never given birth, Or that earth had no God! SHAH JEHAN TO MUMTAZ MAHAL I see as in a pale mirage The palm that o'er you sways, The waters of the Jumna wan are beating. One pearl-cloud, like a far-off Taj, A dome of grief betrays-- Its beauty as was yours will be too fleeting! The world is wider than I knew Now that your face is gone! While you were here no destiny seemed boundless. So I am lost and find no clue To any dusk or
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