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

India: Lahore

Runjeet-Singh and His Suwarree of Seiks

By Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838)

THE HUNTERS were up in the light of the morn,

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.

Proud at their head rode the chief of Lahore.

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 wears the green robe of the Prophet’s high line,

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.

His falconers are round him, a bird on each hand,—

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.

In vain from the chase of that gallant array

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.

On, on through the greenwoods that girdle the pass,

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.