CAMELOT FANTASIES

Edward J. Fitzgerald

First Edition

I.

Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
 Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
    And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
 The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.

II.

Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky
 I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,
    "Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
 Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry."

III.

And, as the **** crew, those who stood before
 The Tavern shouted--"Open then the Door.
    You know how little while we have to stay,
 And, once departed, may return no more."

IV.

Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
 The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
    Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the Bough
 Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.

V.

Iram indeed is gone with all its Rose,
 And Jamshyd's Sev'n-ring'd Cup where no one knows;
    But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields,
 And still a Garden by the Water blows.

VI.

And David's Lips are lock't; but in divine
 High piping Pelevi, with "Wine! Wine! Wine!
    Red Wine!"--the Nightingale cries to the Rose
 That yellow Cheek of hers to'incarnadine.

VII.

Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
 The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
    The Bird of Time has but a little way
 To fly--and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.

VIII.

And look--a thousand Blossoms with the Day
 Woke--and a thousand scatter'd into Clay:
    And this first Summer Month that brings the Rose
 Shall take Jamshyd and Kaikobad away.

IX.

But come with old Khayyam, and leave the Lot
 Of Kaikobad and Kaikhosru forgot:
    Let Rustum lay about him as he will,
 Or Hatim Tai cry Supper--heed them not.

X.

With me along some Strip of Herbage strown
 That just divides the desert from the sown,
    Where name of Slave and Sultan scarce is known,
 And pity Sultan Mahmud on his Throne.

XI.

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
 A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse--and Thou
    Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.

XII.

"How sweet is mortal Sovranty!"--think some:
 Others--"How blest the Paradise to come!"
    Ah, take the Cash in hand and waive the Rest;
 Oh, the brave Music of a distant Drum!

XIII.

Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo,
 Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow:
    At once the silken Tassel of my Purse
 Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw."

XIV.

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
 Turns Ashes--or it prospers; and anon,
    Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face
 Lighting a little Hour or two--is gone.

XV.

And those who husbanded the Golden Grain,
 And those who flung it to the Winds like Rain,
    Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd
 As, buried once, Men want dug up again.

XVI.

Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai
 Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day,
    How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp
 Abode his Hour or two, and went his way.

XVII.

They say the Lion and the Lizard keep
 The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep:
    And Bahram, that great Hunter--the Wild Ass
 Stamps o'er his Head, and he lies fast asleep.

XVIII.

I sometimes think that never blows so red
 The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;
    That every Hyacinth the Garden wears
 Dropt in its Lap from some once lovely Head.

XIX.

And this delightful Herb whose tender Green
 Fledges the River's Lip on which we lean--
    Ah, lean upon it lightly! for who knows
 From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen!

XX.

Ah! my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
 TO-DAY of past Regrets and future Fears-
    To-morrow?--Why, To-morrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.

XXI.

Lo! some we loved, the loveliest and the best
 That Time and Fate of all their Vintage prest,
    Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
 And one by one crept silently to Rest.

XXII.

And we, that now make merry in the Room
 They left, and Summer dresses in new Bloom,
    Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth
 Descend, ourselves to make a Couch--for whom?

XXIII.

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
 Before we too into the Dust Descend;
    Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
 Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer and--sans End!

XXIV.

Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare,
 And those that after a TO-MORROW stare,
    A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
 "Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There."

XXV.

Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd
 Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust
    Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn
 Are scatter'd, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.

XXVI.

Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise
 To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;
    One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;
 The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.

XXVII.

Myself when young did eagerly frequent
 Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
    About it and about: but evermore
 Came out by the same Door as in I went.

XXVIII.

With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
 And with my own hand labour'd it to grow:
    And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."

XXIX.

Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
 Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
    And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
 I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.

XXX.

What, without asking, hither hurried whence?
 And, without asking, whither hurried hence!
    Another and another Cup to drown
 The Memory of this Impertinence!

XXXI.

Up from Earth's Centre through the seventh Gate
 I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate,
    And many Knots unravel'd by the Road;
 But not the Knot of Human Death and Fate.

XXXII.

There was a Door to which I found no Key:
 There was a Veil past which I could not see:
    Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE
 There seemed--and then no more of THEE and ME.