Red are her cheeks like rubies, so red that every night , Despairing to outglow them, the sun withdraws from sight. All day I drink this ruby wine, those rubies rich and bright, But these distil in pearls that fill my dim eyes every night. The nightingale rebukes me; he says my song is trite; But can I sing when tortures wring my bosom night by night? While others woo her in their dreams and slumbers of delight, I groan and weep, I cannot sleep, I weep the livelong night. Oh! I am slain with deadly pain-slain, slain with pain outright, That on her breast her locks should rest so softly all the night. Of Ahmed's tears and torments, and love's unhappy blight The lamp will tell that in his cell burns lower night by night. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN EXPOSTULATION by ISAAC BICKERSTAFFE LINCOLN by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR BATUSCHKA by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE SPIRIT OF THE SABBATH by ISIDORE G. ASCHER THE FIRST BUD O' THE YEAR by CHARLES GRANGER BLANDEN DESERTED DERRICK by MARY ELIZABETH BRANTLEY AN ELEGY ON SIR THOMAS OVERBURY; POISONED IN THE TOWER OF LONDON by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: ONCE by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |