---

James Russell Lowell - Dara
Work rating: Low

When Persia`s sceptre trembled in a hand
Wilted with harem-heats, and all the land
Was hovered over by those vulture ills
That snuff decaying empire from afar,
Then, with a nature balanced as a star,
Dara arose, a shepherd of the hills.

He who had governed fleecy subjects well
Made his own village by the selfsame spell
Secure and quiet as a guarded fold;
Then, gathering strength by slow and wise degrees     
Under his sway, to neighbor villages
Order returned, and faith and justice old.

Now when it fortuned that a king more wise
Endued the realm with brain and hands and eyes,
He sought on every side men brave and just;
And having heard our mountain shepherd`s praise,
How he refilled the mould of elder days,
To Dara gave a satrapy in trust.

So Dara shepherded a province wide,
Nor in his viceroy`s sceptre took more pride         
Than in his crook before; but envy finds
More food in cities than on mountains bare;
And the frank sun of natures clear and rare
Breeds poisonous fogs in low and marish minds.

Soon it was hissed into the royal ear,
That, though wise Dara`s province, year by year,
Like a great sponge, sucked wealth and plenty up,
Yet, when he squeezed it at the king`s behest,
Some yellow drops, more rich than all the rest,
Went to the filling of his private cup.              

For proof, they said, that, wheresoe`er he went,
A chest, beneath whose weight the camel bent,
Went with him; and no mortal eye had seen
What was therein, save only Dara`s own;
But, when `twas opened, all his tent was known
To glow and lighten with heaped jewels` sheen.

The King set forth for Dara`s province straight;
There, as was fit, outside the city`s gate,
The viceroy met him with a stately train,
And there, with archers circled, close at hand,      
A camel with the chest was seen to stand:
The King`s brow reddened, for the guilt was plain.

`Open me here,` he cried, `this treasure-chest!`
`Twas done; and only a worn shepherd`s vest
Was found therein. Some blushed and hung the head;
Not Dara; open as the sky`s blue roof
He stood, and `O my lord, behold the proof
That I was faithful to my trust,` he said.

`To govern men, lo all the spell I had!`
My soul in these rude vestments ever clad            
Still to the unstained past kept true and leal,
Still on these plains could breathe her mountain air,
And fortune`s heaviest gifts serenely bear,
Which bend men from their truth and make them reel.

`For ruling wisely I should have small skill,
Were I not lord of simple Dara still;
That sceptre kept, I could not lose my way.`
Strange dew in royal eyes grew round and bright,
And strained the throbbing lids; before `twas night
Two added provinces blest Dara`s sway.
Source
The script ran 0.001 seconds.