Persian, you rise Aflame from climes of sacrifice Where adulators sue, And prostrate man, with brow abased, Adheres to rites whose tenor traced All worship hitherto. Arch type of sway, Meetly your over-ruling ray You fling from Asia's plain, Whence flashed the javelins abroad Of many a wild incursive horde Led by some shepherd Cain. Mid terrors dinned Gods too came conquerors from your Ind, The brood of Bramha throve; They came like to the scythed car, Westward they rolled their empire far, Of night their purple wove. Chemist, you breed In orient climes each sorcerous weed That energizes dream -- Transmitted, spread in myths and creeds, Houris and hells, delirious screeds And Calvin's last extreme. What though your light In time's first dawn compelled the flight of Chaos' startled clan, Shall never all your darted spears Disperse worse Anarchs, frauds and fears, Sprung from these weeds to man? But Science yet An effluence ampler shall beget, And power beyond your play -- Shall quell the shades you fail to rout, Yea, searching every secret out Elucidate your ray. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AQUATINT FRAMED IN GOLD by AMY LOWELL CAMOMILE TEA by KATHERINE MANSFIELD DOMESDAY BOOK: THE JURY DELIBERATES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE OLD SEXTON by PARK BENJAMIN THE BLACK RIDERS: 1 by STEPHEN CRANE TO ALTHEA, FROM PRISON by RICHARD LOVELACE THE WINDOW; OR, THE SONG OF THE WRENS: MARRIAGE MORNING by ALFRED TENNYSON |