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

Persia: Persian Gulf (Green Sea)

Persian Gulf

By Thomas Moore (1779–1852)

(From Lalla Rookh)

THE MORN hath risen clear and calm,

And o’er the Green Sea palely shines,

Revealing Bahrein’s groves of palm,

And lighting Kishma’s amber vines.

Fresh smell the shores of Araby,

While breezes from the Indian sea

Blow round Selama’s sainted cape,

And curl the shining flood beneath,—

Whose waves are rich with many a grape,

And cocoa-nut and flowery wreath,

Which pious seamen, as they passed,

Had toward that holy headland cast,—

Oblations to the Genii there

For gentle skies and breezes fair!

The nightingale now bends her flight

From the high trees, where all the night

She sung so sweet, with none to listen,

And hides her from the morning star

Where thickets of pomegranate glisten

In the clear dawn,—bespangled o’er

With dew, whose night-drops would not stain

The best and brightest scimitar

That ever youthful Sultan wore

On the first morning of his reign!