Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
Runjeet-Singh and His Suwarree of Seiks
By Letitia Elizabeth Landon (18021838)T
High on the clear air their banners were borne;
And the steeds that they mounted were bright to behold
With housings that glittered in silver and gold.
A dagger that shone with the ruby, he wore;
And Inde and Bokhara and Iran supplied
The dogs, stanch and gallant, that coursed at his side.
He is sprung from the chieftain of Mecca’s far shrine;
His horse, on whose bridle the white pearls are sown,
Has a lineage as distant and pure as his own.
No Norman from Norway ere brought such a band,
So strong is each wing, so dark is each eye
That flings back the light it has learnt in the sky.
The wild boar will hide in the forest to-day;
In vain will the tiger spring forth from its gloom,
He springs on the sabre that beareth his doom.
The sun and the dew are alike on the grass;
On, on, till by moonlight the gathering be
Of the hunters that rest by the banyan-tree.