Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MEMORIAL VERSES: 1. YA MAHBUB!, by SAROJINI NAIDU


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MEMORIAL VERSES: 1. YA MAHBUB!, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Are these the streets that I used to know
Last Line: And the dreams I cherished ... When you were king!
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Death; Love; Memory; Dead, The


ARE these the streets that I used to know—
Was it yesterday or æons ago?
Where are the armies that used to wait—
The pilgrims of Love—at your palace gate?
The joyous pæans that thrilled the air
The pageants that shone thro' your palace square?
And the minstrel music that used to ring
Thro' your magic kingdom ... when you were king?

O hands that succoured a people's need
With the splendour of Haroun-al-Rasheed!
O heart that solaced a sad world's cry
With the sumptuous bounty of Hatim Tai!
Where are the days that were winged and clad
In the fabulous glamour of old Baghdad,
And the bird of glory that used to sing
In your magic kingdom ... when you were king?

O king, in your kingdom there is no change,
'Tis only my soul that hath grown so strange,
So faint with sorrow it cannot hear
Aught save the chant at your rose-crowned bier.
My grieving bosom hath grown too cold
To clasp the beauty it treasured of old,
The grace of life and the gifts of spring,
And the dreams I cherished ... when you were king!





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