Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Mesopotamia: Bagdad | | Bagdad | | Robert Southey (1774–1843) |
| | (From Thalaba the Destroyer, Book V)
THOU, too, art fallen, Bagdad! City of Peace, | |
| Thou too hast had thy day; | |
| And loathsome Ignorance and brute Servitude | |
| Pollute thy dwellings now, | |
| Erst for the mighty and the wise renowned. | 5 |
| O, yet illustrious for remembered fame,— | |
| Thy founder the Victorious,—and the pomp | |
| Of Haroun, for whose name by blood defiled, | |
| Yahia’s, and the blameless Barmecides’, | |
| Genius hath wrought salvation,—and the years | 10 |
| When Science with the good Al-Maimon dwelt; | |
| So one day may the Crescent from thy mosques | |
| Be plucked by Wisdom, when the enlightened arm | |
| Of Europe conquers to redeem the East! | |
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| Then Pomp and Pleasure dwelt within her walls; | 15 |
| The merchants of the East and of the West | |
| Met in her arched bazaars; | |
| All day the active poor | |
| Showered a cool comfort o’er her thronging streets; | |
| Labor was busy in her looms; | 20 |
| Through all her open gates | |
| Long troops of laden camels lined the roads, | |
| And Tigris bore upon his tameless stream | |
| Armenian harvests to her multitudes. | | | | |
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