Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
Cafés in Damascus
By Letitia Elizabeth Landon (18021838)L
From the garden round,
Where the clear Barrada floweth
With a lulling sound.
Can such music find,
As is on a wandering river,
On a wandering wind.
O’er the inward world,
While around the fragrant steaming
Of the smoke is curled,
Dark grape of the South;
Or the pipe of polished cherry,
With its amber mouth,
Gurgling as it flows,—
Scented by the Summer’s daughter,
June’s impassioned rose.
Are the dreams that rise,
Of far lands, and lives enchanted,
And of deep black eyes.
Float they down life’s stream;
Would to Heaven our whole existence
Could be such a dream!