e moment that my weight
Was felt upon my back, as if exulting in her freight;
Whilst dolefully I heard a voice that set each nerve ajar,--
"Off with the bridle--quick!--and leave his guidance to his star!"

"Allah! il Allah!" rose the shout,--and starting with a bound,
The dreadful Creature cleared at once a dozen yards of ground;
And grasping at her mane with both my cold convulsive hands,
Away we flew--away! away! across the shifting sands!
My eyes were closed in utter dread of such a fearful race,
But yet by certain signs I knew we went no earthly pace,
For turn whichever way we might, the wind with equal force
Rush'd like a horrid hurricane still adverse to our course--
One moment close at hand I heard the roaring Syrian Sea,
The next is only murmur'd like the humming of a bee!
And when I dared at last to glance across the wild immense,
Oh ne'er shall I forget the whirl that met the dizzy sense!

What seem'd a little sprig of fern, ere lips could reckon twain,
A palm of forty cubits high, we passed it on the plain!
What tongue could tell,--what pencil paint,--what pen describe the ride?
Now off--now on--now up--now down,--and flung from side to side!
I tried to speak, but had no voice, to soothe her with its tone--
My scanty breath was jolted out with many a sudden groan--
My joints were racked--my back was strained, so firmly I had clung--
My nostrils gush'd, and thrice my teeth had bitten through my tongue--
When lo!--farewell all hope of life!--she turn'd and faced the rocks,
None but a flying horse could clear those monstrous granite blocks!
So thought I,--but I little knew the desert pride and fire,
Deriv'd from a most deer-like dam, and lion-hearted sire;
Little I guess'd the energy of muscle, blood, and bone,
Bound after bound, with eager springs, she clear'd each massive stone;--
Nine mortal leaps were pass'd before a huge gray rock at length
Stood planted there as if to dare her utmost pitch of strength--
My time was come! that granite heap my monument of death!
She paused, she snorted loud and long, and drew a fuller breath;
Nine strides and then a louder beat that warn'd me of her spring,
I felt her rising in the air like eagle on the wing--
But oh! the crash!--the hideous shock!--the million sparks around!
Her hindmost hoofs had struck the crest of that prodigious mound!

Wild shriek'd the headlong Desert-Born--or else 'twas demon's mirth,
One second more, and Man and Mare roll'd breathless on the e