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ALEXANDER AND THE TREE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The sun is bright, the air is bland
Last Line: But conquers for a grave!'


The sun is bright, the air is bland ,
The heavens wear that stainless blue,
Which only in an Orient land
The eye of man may view;
And lo! around, and all abroad,
A glittering host, a mighty horde-
And at their head a demigod
Who slays with lightning sword!


The bright noon burns, but idly now
Those warriors rest by copse and hill,
And shadows on their Leader's brow
Seem ominous of ill.
Spell-bound, he stands beside a tree,
And well he may, for through its leaves,
Unstirred by wind, come brokenly
Moans, as of one that grieves!


How strange! he thought-Life is a boon
Given, and resumed-but how? and when?
But now I asked myself how soon
I should go home agen!
How soon I might once more behold
My mourning mother's tearful face;
How soon my kindred might enfold
Me in their dear embrace!


There was an Indian Magian there-
And, stepping forth, he bent his knee:
"O king!" he said, "be wise!-beware
This too prophetic tree!"
"Ha!" cried the king, "thou knowest then, Seer,
What yon strange oracle reveals?"
"Alas!" the Magian said, "I hear
Deep words, like thunder peals!


"I hear the groans of more than Man,
Hear tones that warn, denounce, beseech;
Hear-woe is me!-how darkly ran
That stream of thrilling speech!
'O king,' it spake, 'all-trampling king!
Thou leadest legions from afar;
But Battle droops his clotted wing!
Night menaces thy star!


"'Fond visions of thy boyhood's years
Dawn like dim light upon thy soul;
Thou seest again thy mother's tears,
Which Love could not control!
Ah! thy career, in sooth, is run!
Ah! thou indeed returnest home!
The Mother waits to clasp her son
Low in her lampless dome!


"'Yet go, rejoicing! He who reigns
O'er Earth alone leaves worlds unscanned;
Life binds the spirit as with chains;
Seek thou the Phantom Land!
Leave Conquest all it looks for here,
Leave willing slaves a bloody throne;
Thine henceforth is another sphere,
Death's realm, the dark Unknown!'"






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