Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HIS CAMEL, by ALQAMATH



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HIS CAMEL, by                    
First Line: So leave her, and cast care from thy heart with a sturdy
Last Line: Mislikes it, all the choice is to journey on.
Subject(s): Arabia; Camels; Deserts; Food & Eating; Travel; Journeys; Trips


SO leave her, and cast care from thy heart with a sturdy mount—a camel that

ambles tireless, carrying riders twain;
To Harith, the generous Lord, I drive her unsparing on, with pantings that shake

her breast and throb through her ribs and flanks:
A fleet runner whose flesh over sides and where neck meets hump has vanished
beneath noon-tide's hot breath and the onward press;
And yet after night's long toil the dawn breaks and finds her fresh as antelope,

young and strong, that flees from the hunter's pack:
They crouched by the artà-brake, the hunters, and thought to win a safe

prey: but she escaped their shafts and pursuing hounds.
So travels my beast, and makes her object a man far off, and little by little
gains the way to his bounteous hand.
Yet, thou wast her labor's end—God keep thee from curse, O King! and
through all the Desert's sameness sped she, beset with fears.
Towards thee the Pole-stars led, and there where men's feet had passed a track
plain to see that wound by cairns over ridges scarred.
There bodies of beasts outworn lay thickly along the road, their bones gleaming

white, their hides all shriveled and hard and dry.
I bring her to drink the dregs of cisterns all mire and draff; and if she
mislikes it, all the choice is to journey on.





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