The Barque of Dreams

One night, upon the Barque of Dreams,
I voyaged into the Orient,
And with me, as a pilot, went
A tall and turbaned Mussulman
Whose eyes had wondrous starry gleams,
And who from out of El Koran
Wove me weird tales wherewith he blent
Soft snatches of Arabian song,
The while we smoothly slid along
Before light gales of jasmine scent.

The sails were hued like mother-pearl;
In radiant sweep and rainbow swirl
The water 'neath our keel slipped by
While overhead there hung a sky
Where clouds, in little snowy curl,
Floated and fleeted waveringly.

We coasted beaches where the palm
Stood up in purple silhouette;
Where ever, in a silvery psalm,
The hidden birds kept chorusing,
And streams afar flung jet on jet
Down heights bright-raimented with spring.
From many a marble minaret
We heard the rapt muezzins call;
And to the prayerful cries my guide,
During each trembling interval,
With reverence serene replied.

We sighted terraced islands where
Colossi brooded still and strange;
And sphinxes, with mysterious stare,
Crouched, pondering on death and birth,
And all the miracles of change
That mystify the sons of earth.

And, at the last, methought we came
To piers of burnished jasper-stone,
Round which the water made no moan,
But rippled into ecstasies;
And all the land was lit with flame
Of very joy, each spot the same.
Then suddenly my guide seemed one
Whom I had loved beneath the sun,—
A woman of celestial guise.
"This," murmured she, "is Paradise!"
And forth we stepped upon the shore,
Hand locked in hand, in worship wise,
And there abode for evermore.