THE MOURNER FOR THE BARMECIDES. O good old man! how well in thee appears As You Like It. FALL'N was the House of Giafar; and its name, The high romantic name of Barmecide, A sound forbidden on its own bright shores, By the swift Tygris' wave. Stern Haroun's wrath, Had so pass'd sentence: but man's chainless heart Th' oppressor's thought could reach. 'Twas desolate Where Giafar's halls, beneath the burning sun, Spread out in ruin lay. The songs had ceas'd; Had ceas'd; the guests were gone. voice Yet still one Was there the fountain's; thro' those eastern courts, Over the broken marble and the grass, Its low clear music shedding mournfully. And still another voice!-an aged man, A tone that shook them with its answering thrill Pouring his memory's fulness o'er its gloom, By song or high recital of their deeds, Rear'd in this lordly dwelling, and was now His fading life seem'd bound. Day roll'd on day, For crowds around the grey-hair'd chronicler And with his white lips rigidly compress'd; Till, in submissive tones, he ask'd to speak Once more, ere thrust from earth's fair sunshine forth. Was it to sue for grace ?—his burning heart Sprang, with a sudden lightning, to his eye, And he was changed!—and thus, in rapid words, Th' o'ermastering thoughts, more strong than death found way. "And shall I not rejoice to go, when the noble and the brave, With the glory on their brows, are gone before me to the grave? What is there left to look on now, what brightness in the land? I hold in scorn the faded world, that wants their princely band! My chiefs! my chiefs! the old man comes, that in your halls was nurs'd, That follow'd you to many a fight, where flash'd your sabres first; That bore your children in his arms, your name upon his heart Oh! must the music of that name with him from earth depart? "It shall not be !—a thousand tongues, tho' human voice were still, With that high sound the living air triumphantly shall fill; The wind's free flight shall bear it on, as wandering seeds are sown, And the starry midnight whisper it, with a deep and thrilling tone. |