Fakeer of Jungheera 2.7
Come swarming round the rich date trees,
Creeps slowly on the listener's ear,
Advancing near, and still more near ;—
The crowd gives way :—with aspect high
And piercing quick impatient eye
Shooting its glances from beneath
A raven lash as dark as death;
With wrinkled brow, but still sublime,
Like the tall cedar scathed by time,
With haughty mien and unbent hands
A venerable father stands!—
I've gazed on many a ruined wall
And shattered tower at Rajmahal;
I've looked on many a battlement,
By time destroyed or tempest rent;
And as their fragments round me lay,
Those mighty wrecks did I survey
Not with such feelings as a flower
May wake, when bowed by gust or shower :—
'Twas thus, not pitying, but amazed
All eyes upon that father gazed,
A stranger there—but when he spake
None else the silence dared to break.