The City In The Desert

In a lost land, that only dreams have known, Where flaming suns walk naked and alone; Among horizons bright as molten brass, And glowing heavens like furnaces of glass, It rears with dome and tower manifold, Rich as a dawn of amarant and gold, Or gorgeous as the Phoenix, born of fire, And soaring from an opalescent pyre Sheer to the zenith. Like some anademe Of Titan jewels turned to flame and dream The city crowns the far horizon-light Over the flowered meads of damassin .... A desert isle of madreperl ! wherein The thurifer and opal-fruited palm And heaven-thronging minarets becalm The seas of azure wind.... (Note: These lines were remembered out of a dream, and are given verbatim.)