Protest By Zahir U Din

Alas! alas! this wasted Night

With all its Jasmin-scented air,

Its thousand stars, serenely bright!

I lie alone, and long for you,

Long for your Champa-scented hair,

Your tranquil eyes of twilight hue;

Long for the close-curved, delicate lips

–Their sinuous sweetness laid on mine–

Here, where the slender fountain drips,

Here, where the yellow roses glow,

Pale in the tender silver shine

The stars across the garden throw.

Alas! alas! poor passionate Youth!

Why must we spend these lonely nights?

The poets hardly speak the truth,–

Despite their praiseful litany,

His season is not all delights

Nor every night an ecstasy!

The very power and passion that make–

_Might_ make–his days one golden dream,

How he must suffer for their sake!

Till, in their fierce and futile rage,

The baffled senses almost deem

They might be happier in old age.

Age that can find red roses sweet,

And yet not crave a rose-red mouth;

Hear Bulbuls, with no wish that feet

Of sweeter singers went his way;

Inhale warm breezes from the South,

Yet never fed his fancy stray.

From some near Village I can hear

The cadenced throbbing of a drum,

Now softly distant, now more near;

And in an almost human fashion,

It, plaintive, wistful, seems to come

Laden with sighs of fitful passion,

To mock me, lying here alone

Among the thousand useless flowers

Upon the fountain’s border-stone–

Cold stone, that chills me as I lie

Counting the slowly passing hours

By the white spangles in the sky.

Some feast the Tom-toms celebrate,

Where, close together, side by side,

Gay in their gauze and tinsel state

With lips serene and downcast eyes,

Sit the young bridegroom and his bride,

While round them songs and laughter rise.

They are together; Why are we

So hopelessly, so far apart?

Oh, I implore you, come to me!

Come to me, Solace of mine eyes!

Come Consolation of my heart!

Light of my senses! What replies?

A little, languid, mocking breeze

That rustles through the Jasmin flowers

And stirs among the Tamarind trees;

A little gurgle of the spray

That drips, unheard, though silent hours,

Then breaks in sudden bubbling play.

Wind, have you never loved a rose?

And water, seek you not the Sea?

Why, therefore, mock at my repose?

Is it my fault I am alone

Beneath the feathery Tamarind tree

Whose shadows over me are thrown?

Nay, I am mad indeed, with thirst

For all to me this night denied

And drunk with longing, and accurst

Beyond all chance of sleep or rest,

With love, unslaked, unsatisfied,

And dreams of beauty unpossessed.

Hating the hour that brings you not,

Mad at the space betwixt us twain,

Sad for my empty arms, so hot

And fevered, even the chilly stone

Can scarcely cool their burning pain,–

And oh, this sense of being alone!

Take hence, O Night, your wasted hours,

You bring me not my Life’s Delight,

My Star of Stars, my Flower of Flowers!

You leave me loveless and forlorn,

Pass on, most false and futile night,

Pass on, and perish in the Dawn!

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• On A Picture Of A Black Centaur By Edmund Dulac by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Old Tom Again by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Old Memory by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Oil And Blood by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• O Do Not Love Too Long by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• News For The Delphic Oracle by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Never Give All The Heart by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Mohini Chatterjee by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Model For The Laureate by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Michael Robartes And The Dancer by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Men Improve With The Years by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Memory by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Meeting by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Meditations In Time Of Civil War by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Byzantium by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Blood And The Moon by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Before The World Was Made by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Beautiful Lofty Things by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Baile And Aillinn by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats

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