Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
Persian Gulf
By Thomas Moore (1779–1852)T
And o’er the Green Sea palely shines,
Revealing Bahrein’s groves of palm,
And lighting Kishma’s amber vines.
Fresh smell the shores of Araby,
While breezes from the Indian sea
Blow round Selama’s sainted cape,
And curl the shining flood beneath,—
Whose waves are rich with many a grape,
And cocoa-nut and flowery wreath,
Which pious seamen, as they passed,
Had toward that holy headland cast,—
Oblations to the Genii there
For gentle skies and breezes fair!
The nightingale now bends her flight
From the high trees, where all the night
She sung so sweet, with none to listen,
And hides her from the morning star
Where thickets of pomegranate glisten
In the clear dawn,—bespangled o’er
With dew, whose night-drops would not stain
The best and brightest scimitar
That ever youthful Sultan wore
On the first morning of his reign!