Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Persia: Khorassan (Bactria) | | The Veiled Prophet | | Thomas Moore (1779–1852) |
| | (From Lalla Rookh)
IN that delightful province of the sun, | |
| The first of Persian lands he shines upon, | |
| Where, all the loveliest children of his beam, | |
| Flowerets and fruits blush over every stream, | |
| And, fairest of all streams, the Murga roves, | 5 |
| Among Merou’s bright palaces and groves; | |
| There, on that throne, to which the blind belief | |
| Of millions raised him, sat the prophet-chief, | |
| The great Mokanna. O’er his features hung | |
| The veil, the silver veil, which he had flung | 10 |
| In mercy there, to hide from mortal sight | |
| His dazzling brow, till man could bear its light. | |
| For, far less luminous, his votaries said, | |
| Were even the gleams, miraculously shed | |
| O’er Moussa’s cheek, when down the mount he trod, | 15 |
| All glowing from the presence of his God! | | | | |
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