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Robert Laurence Binyon - Bahram The Hunter
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When Bahram rode to the chase,
 Then saw ye his soul`s delight
 Full on his kingly face.
 Who could his steed outpace?
 He swooped like a falcon`s flight;
 Like a sunbeam that strikes from a cloud,
 Exulting and eager--browed,
 So rode he his reckless race.

 Bright flashed the pools at morn,
 And the sun o`er the mountains burned
 And gilded the antelope`s horn
 In the plain, and the wild ass in scorn
 Of the hunter the hard soil spurned,
 Snuffing the wind, most fleet
 Of quarries, the beat of whose feet
 Is music to kings` ears borne.

 Bahram smiled as he rode
 On the gold--bright sands; debonair
 Was his look, and his glad voice flowed.
 White was the horse he bestrode,
 And over his black beard and hair
 The white--furred cap on his head
 Was hung with tassels of red:
 On his mantle a gold sun glowed.

 And round him glittering gay
 Rode princes and lords; he turned
 To each with a word to say
 In his royal courtesy; nay,
 Not a heart but joyously burned
 To be near to a heart so great,
 And was fain to be proved its mate
 In a glorious deed this day.

 But the king`s men shouted; for lo!
 The wild ass afar they espied
 In the shallowing valley below,
 Where bright springs fathomless flow.
 He was shaking his neck in pride,
 And his heels the dust upthrew:
 Then Bahram shot forth to pursue,
 As a bolt that is shot from a bow.

 The princes of Persia spurred,
 But he left them all; this day
 There was neither second nor third
 To the king. Now a startled bird
 From the low thicket fluttered away;
 Then the plain smoked up in a cloud
 Behind them, and thundered aloud;
 Yet never the king they neared.

 Swifter the wild ass fled,
 But swifter the king came nigher,
 Wherever those fleet heels led;
 Now soft upon mosses he sped,
 Now the hoofs upon stone struck fire;
 Till the wild ass turned in his fear
 For an instant, and showed him clear
 The eyeball strained in his head.

 Then the princes shouted as one,
 For they heard the king`s glad shout,
 And saw his spear raised in the sun,
 And the light o`er the long shaft run;
 As they looked for the steel to flash out
 On a sudden the place was bare;
 Bahram was no more there,
 And the wild ass galloped alone.

 Pale they spurred o`er the ground,
 Then reined in close with a cry,
 Gazing in terror around:
 Neither king nor horse they found.
 But before them laughed to the sky
 A pool of springs that well
 From the streams under earth and swell
 Through her secret caverns profound.

 The women of Ctesiphon wail,
 And the young men cry in the street,
 ``No more now in the Vale
 Of Heroes shall Bahram hail
 His quarry of glancing feet,
 No more shall his voice delight
 Our hearts through the battle, and smite
 The ranks of the Tartar pale!``

 The mother of Bahram hath made
 Amid pillars his empty tomb
 Of porphyry, jasper and jade.
 Clear gums in fire she hath frayed
 To cloud it in idle fume.
 Not riches from isles of the dawn
 Nor spices from far Damaun
 Lure hither the strong--winged shade.

 Tomb nor prison shall tame
 Bahram the hunter`s soul.
 As of old to the chase he came,
 He is turned not aside from his aim,
 He is mixed with the streams that roll
 Unending as man`s desire,
 That shall not abate of its fire
 Till the whole world crumble in flame.
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