THE CITY

By Cale Young Rice

Soft and fair by the Desert's edge,

And on the dim blue edge of the sea,

Where white gulls wing all day and fledge

Their young on the high cliff's sandy ledge,

There is a city I have beheld,

Sometime or where, by day or dream,

I know not which, for it seems enspelled

As I am by its memory.

Pale minarets of the Prophet pierce

Above it into the white of the skies,

And sails enchanted a thousand years

Flit at its feet while fancy steers.

No face of all its faces to me

Is known — no passion of it or pain.

It is but a city by the sea,

Enshrined forever beyond my eyes!