’Twas this compelled the stern decree,
    That forc’d thee to those distant towers,
  And left me nought but love for thee,
    To cheer my solitary hours.

  Yet let not Abla sink deprest,
    Nor separation’s pangs deplore;
  We meet not—­’tis to meet more blest;
    We parted—­’tis to part no more.

Saif Addaulet, Sultan of Aleppe.

CRUCIFIXION OF EBN BAKIAH[25]

  Whatever thy fate, in life and death,
    Thou’rt doom’d above us still to rise,
  Whilst at a distance far beneath
    We view thee with admiring eyes.

  The gazing crowds still round thee throng,
    Still to thy well-known voice repair,
  As when erewhile thy hallow’d tongue
    Pour’d in the Mosque the solemn prayer.

  Still, generous Vizir, we survey
    Thine arms extended o’er our head,
  As lately, in the festive day,
    When they were stretch’d thy gifts to shed.

  Earth’s narrow boundaries strove in vain
    To limit thy aspiring mind,
  And now we see thy dust disdain
    Within her breast to be confin’d.

  The earth’s too small for one so great,
    Another mansion thou shalt have—­
  The clouds shall be thy winding sheet,
    The spacious vault of heaven thy grave.

Abou Hassan Alanbary.

[25] Ebn Bakiah was vizir to Azzad Addaulet or Bachteir, Emir Alomra
     of Bagdad, under the Caliphs Moti Lillah and Tay Lillah; but Azzad
     Addaulet being deprived of his office, and driven from Bagdad by
     Adhed Addaulet, Sultan of Persia, Ebn Bakiah was seized and
     crucified at the gates of the city, by order of the conqueror.

CAPRICES OF FORTUNE[26]

  Why should I blush that Fortune’s frown
    Dooms me life’s humble paths to tread? 
  To live unheeded, and unknown? 
    To sink forgotten to the dead?

  ’Tis not the good, the wise, the brave,
    That surest shine, or highest rise;
  The feather sports upon the wave,
    The pearl in ocean’s cavern lies.

  Each lesser star that studs the sphere
    Sparkles with undiminish’d light: 
  Dark and eclips’d alone appear
    The lord of day, the queen of night.

Shems Almaali Cabus.

[26] History can show few princes so amiable and few so unfortunate
     as Shems Almaali Cabus.  He is described as possessed of almost every
     virtue and every accomplishment:  his piety, justice, generosity, and
     humanity, are universally celebrated; nor was he less conspicuous
     for intellectual powers; his genius was at once penetrating, solid,
     and brilliant, and he distinguished himself equally as an orator, a
     philosopher, and a poet.

ON LIFE