PART THREE
OTHER VERSES
SHAH JEHAN
BUILDER OF THE TAJ MAHAL.
They have carried my couch to the window
Up over the river high,
That a Great Mogul may have his wish
Ere he lay him down to die.
And the wish was ever this, and is,
Ere the last least shadows flee,
To gaze at the end o’er the river’s bend
On the shrine that I raised for thee.
And the plans I wrought from the plans they brought,
And I watched it slowly rise,
A vision of snow forever aglow
In the blue of the northern skies.
For I built it of purest marble,
That all the World might see
The depth of thy matchless beauty
And the light that ye were to me.
The silver Jumna broadens—
The day is growing dark,
And only the peacock’s calling
Comes over the rose-rimmed park.