Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.

Asia Minor: Karaman

The Karamanian Exile

By James Clarence Mangan (1803–1849)

I SEE thee ever in my dreams,

Karaman,

Thy hundred hills, thy thousand streams,

Karaman! O Karaman

As when thy gold-bright morning gleams,

As when the deepening sunset seams

With lines of light thy hills and streams,

Karaman!

So thou loomest on my dreams,

Karaman! O Karaman!

The hot, bright plains, the sun, the skies,

Karaman!

Seem death-black marbles to mine eyes,

Karaman! O Karaman!

I turn from summer blood and dyes;

Yet in my dreams thou dost arise

In welcome glory to my eyes,

Karaman!

In thee my life of life yet lies,

Karaman!

Thou still art holy in mine eyes,

Karaman! O Karaman!

Ere my fighting years were come,

Karaman!

Troops were few in Erzeroum,

Karaman! O Karaman!

Their fiercest came from Erzeroum,

They came from Ukhbar’s palace dome,

They dragged me forth from thee, my home,

Karaman!

Thee, my own, my mountain home,

Karaman!

In life and death, my spirit’s home,

Karaman! O Karaman!

O, none of all my sisters ten,

Karaman!

Loved like me my fellow-men,

Karaman! O Karaman!

I was mild as milk till then,

I was soft as silk till then;

Now my breast is as a den,

Karaman!

Foul with blood and bones of men,

Karaman!

With blood and bones of slaughtered men,

Karaman! O Karaman!

My boyhood’s feelings newly born,

Karaman!

With life’s young flowers were all uptorn,

Karaman! O Karaman!

And in their stead sprang weed and thorn;

What once I loved now moves my scorn;

My burning eyes are dried to horn,

Karaman!

I hate the blessed light of morn,

Karaman! O Karaman!

The Spahi wears a tyrant’s chains,

Karaman!

But bondage worse than this remains,

Karaman! O Karaman!

My heart is black with million stains:

Thereon, as on Kaf’s blasted plains,

Shall nevermore fall dews and rains,

Karaman!

Save poison-dews and bloody rains,

Karaman!

Hell’s poison-dews and bloody rains,

Karaman! O Karaman!

But life, at worst, must end erelong,

Karaman!

Azreel avengeth every wrong,

Karaman! O Karaman!

Of late my thoughts rove more among

Thy fields; o’ershadowing fancies throng

My mind, and text of bodeful song,

Karaman!

Azreel is terrible and strong,

Karaman!

His lightning sword smites all erelong,

Karaman! O Karaman!

There ’s care to-night in Ukhbar’s halls,

Karaman!

There ’s hope, too, for his trodden thralls,

Karaman! O Karaman!

What lights flash red along yon walls?

Hark! Hark! The muster-trumpet calls!

I see the sheen of spears and shawls,

Karaman!

The foe! The foe! They scale the walls,

Karaman!

To-night Muràd or Ukhbar falls,

Karaman! O Karaman!