XIX

I saw ... O brother, 'mid far sands

The palm-tree-cinctured city stands,

Bright-white beneath, as heaven, bright-blue,

Leans o'er it, while the years pursue

Their course, unable to abate

Its paradisal laugh at fate!

One morn,—the Arab staggers blind

O'er a new tract of death, calcined

To ashes, silence, nothingness,—