| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920. 1920. |
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| To a Persian Manuscript |
| | | Ida O’Neil |
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| BEHIND the high white wall | |
| There is always a garden— | |
| A lawn, close-clipped and pale, | |
| Studded with flowers; | |
| There they have placed a chair | 5 |
| For the happy guest, | |
| And slim high-bosomed maidens | |
| Bring flesh and figs and wine | |
| In bowls of peacock blue. | |
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| Beyond the minaretted gate | 10 |
| Go elephants in caravan, | |
| And horsemen ride through forest tracery | |
| Of gold and flowers | |
| To cities | |
| Arched and white against the sky. | 15 |
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| These are windows | |
| Opening on a golden world— | |
| Blooming-islands on a sea | |
| Of dim, dust colored vellum, | |
| While the ripples— | 20 |
| Painted rhythms, | |
| Sable characters— | |
| Bear challenge to the wit | |
| More potent still | |
| Than half-guessed imagery | 25 |
| Of illumined page. | |
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| And as the traveller without the wall | |
| Divines with thirsty heart | |
| The hidden flash of fountains, | |
| So to me, among these silent books, | 30 |
| Is borne the cadence of a desert tongue, | |
| And beauty blossoms here | |
Upon my knees.
The Nation | |
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