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Home  »  A Library of American Literature  »  As I Came Down from Lebanon

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

As I Came Down from Lebanon

By Clinton Scollard (1860–1932)

[Born in Clinton, Oneida Co., N. Y., 1860. Died in Boonville, N. Y., 1932. With Reed and Lyre. 1886.—Old and New World Lyrics. 1888.]

AS I came down from Lebanon,

Came winding, wandering slowly down,

Through mountain passes bleak and brown,

The cloudless day was wellnigh done.

The city, like an opal set

In emerald, showed each minaret

Afire with radiant beams of sun,

And glistened orange, fig, and lime

Where song-birds made melodious chime,

As I came down from Lebanon.

As I came down from Lebanon,

Like lava in the dying glow

Through olive orchards far below

I saw the murmuring river run;

And ’neath the wall upon the sand

Swart sheiks from distant Samarcand,

With precious spices they had won,

Lay long and languidly in wait

Till they might pass the guarded gate,

As I came down from Lebanon.

As I came down from Lebanon

I saw strange men from lands afar,

In mosque and square and gay bazar,

The Magi that the Moslem shun.

And grave Effendi from Stamboul,

Who sherbet sipped in corners cool;

And, from the balconies o’errun

With roses, gleamed the eyes of those

Who dwell in still seraglios,

As I came down from Lebanon.

As I came down from Lebanon

The flaming flower of daytime died,

And night, arrayed as is a bride

Of some great king in garments spun

Of purple and the finest gold,

Outbloomed in glories manifold:

Until the moon, above the dun

And darkening desert, void of shade,

Shone like a keen Damascus blade,

As I came down from Lebanon.