I.— THE PRINCE OF ORMUZ SINGS TO BADOURA

By Robert Nichols

When she kisses me with her lips, I become

A Roc, that giant, that fabulous bird

And over the desert, vast, yellow, and dumb,

I wheel, and my jubilant screaming is heard,

A voice, an echo, high up and glad,

Over the domes and green pools of Bagdad.

But when she kisses me with her eyes,

My heart melts in me; she is my sun;

She strokes my snow; I am loosed, I arise:

A brook of water I run, I run,

Crystal water, sunny and sweet,

Laughing and weeping to fawn at her feet.