IV
AL-ZAHRA
Not with the Orient glamor of her pleasures.
Nor with fond rhapsodies of prayer or song
Could she her sovereign reign a day prolong;
Not in the things of beauty that man measures
By the variable humor of his leisures,
Or by the credibilities that change
From faith to fantasy to rumor strange,
Was she the mistress of immortal treasures.
But when the holy shrine Europa sought,
Herself of sin and witchcraft to assoil,
The sovereigns of Al-Zahra maxims wrought
And Averroes burned his midnight oil;—
Arabia, the bearer of the light,
Still sparkles in the diadem of Night.
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