BEDOUIN SONG

by: Bayard Taylor (1825-1878)

      ROM the Desert I come to thee
      On a stallion shod with fire;
      And the winds are left behind
      In the speed of my desire.
      Under thy window I stand,
      And the midnight hears my cry:
      I love thee, I love but thee,
      With a love that shall not die
      Till the sun grows cold,
      And the stars are old,
      And the leaves of the Judgment Book Unfold!
       
      Look from thy window and see
      My passion and my pain;
      I lie on the sands below,
      And I faint in thy disdain.
      Let the night-winds touch thy brow
      With the heat of my burning sigh,
      And melt thee to hear the vow
      Of a love that shall not die
      Till the sun grows cold,
      And the stars are old,
      And the leaves of the Judgment Book Unfold!
       
      My steps are nightly driven,
      By the fever in my breast,
      To hear from thy lattice breathed
      The word that shall give me rest.
      Open the door of thy heart,
      And open thy chamber door,
      And my kisses shall teach thy lips
      The love that shall fade no more
      Till the sun grows cold,
      And the stars are old,
      And the leaves of the Judgment Book Unfold!

"Bedouin Song" is reprinted from The Little Book of American Poets: 1787-1900. Ed. Jessie B. Rittenhouse. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1915.

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