Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
Bagdad
By Robert Southey (17741843)T
Thou too hast had thy day;
And loathsome Ignorance and brute Servitude
Pollute thy dwellings now,
Erst for the mighty and the wise renowned.
O, yet illustrious for remembered fame,—
Thy founder the Victorious,—and the pomp
Of Haroun, for whose name by blood defiled,
Yahia’s, and the blameless Barmecides’,
Genius hath wrought salvation,—and the years
When Science with the good Al-Maimon dwelt;
So one day may the Crescent from thy mosques
Be plucked by Wisdom, when the enlightened arm
Of Europe conquers to redeem the East!
The merchants of the East and of the West
Met in her arched bazaars;
All day the active poor
Showered a cool comfort o’er her thronging streets;
Labor was busy in her looms;
Through all her open gates
Long troops of laden camels lined the roads,
And Tigris bore upon his tameless stream
Armenian harvests to her multitudes.