Lyrical and Dramatic Poems Author:Robert Browning Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: MULEYKEH. If a stranger passed the tent of Hoseyn, he cried " A churl's !" Or haply " God help the man who has neither salt nor bread ! " —" Nay," would... more » a friend exclaim, "he needs nor pity nor scorn More than who spends small thought on the shore- sand, picking pearls, — Holds but in light esteem the seed-sort, bears instead On his breast a moon-like prize, some orb which of night makes morn. " What if no flocks and herds enrich the son of Sinan ? They went when his tribe was mulct, ten thousand camels the due, Blood-value paid perforce for a murder done of old. ' God gave them, let them go ! But never since time began, Muleykeh, peerless mare, owned master the match of you, And you are my prize, my Pearl: I laugh at men's land and gold !' " So in the pride of his soul laughs Hoseyn — and right, I say. Do the ten steeds run a race of glory ? Outstripping Ever Muleykeh stands first steed at the victor's staff. Who started, the owner's hope, gets shamed and named, that day, ' Silence,' or, last but one, ' The Cuffed,' as we use to call Whom the paddock's lord thrusts forth. Right, Hoseyn, I say, to laugh." "Boasts he Mule'ykeh the Pearl?" the stranger replies : " Be sure On him I waste nor scorn nor pity, but lavish bothOn Duhl the son of Sheyban, who withers away in heart For envy of Hoseyn's luck. Such sickness admits no cure. A certain poet has sung, and sealed the same with an oath, ' For the vulgar — flocks and herds ! The Pearl is a prize apart.'" Lo, Duhl the son of Sheyban comes riding to Hoseyn's tent, And he casts his saddle down, and enters and " Peace " bids he. " You are poor, I know the cause : my plenty shall mend the wrong. 'Tis said of your Pearl — the price of a hundred camel...« less