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ALHAMBRA SONGS: 5. THE MARKET PLACE, by                    
First Line: There strode a bedouin through the market place
Last Line: "tis with the meek of heart that love and allah bide."
Alternate Author Name(s): Gill, Roderick; Strange, Garrett
Subject(s): Gifts & Giving; Love


THERE strode a Bedouin through the market place
A frown like some archangel's on his face;
And as each merchant spread his richest ware,
His silver woofs and gold, his jewelled lace,
His gems of Samarkand, his perfumes rare,—
He cast them off:—"Unworthy glance of mine—
All these she hath, nor doth she cease to pine!"

Then whispered him his slave-boy from Cashmere:—
"Master of life, thou hast seen all things here,
Yet since no trinket, pearl, nor vesture seems
Of worth for her whom thou dost hold so dear,—
I know hard-by a little booth of dreams
Wherein a gentle scribe of Persia writes
Such fond ghazals as bring the heart delights."

In vain were gilt and santal'd case unrolled
"Songs like to these she hath in heaps untold;
What ho! some witch, some scholar of the East,
With spells for sale for good Tunisian gold!"
Then at his cloak plucked Ishmaël the priest,
And whispered,—"Lay beneath her feet thy pride;
'Tis with the meek of heart that love and Allah bide."





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