SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH POETRY
Till slowly in his fur-lined cloak the merchant issued
from his tent.
Then he too started at the sight and clamoured with
his clamorous men, go
And swore he could not see aright, and rubbed his
eyes and stared again;
The camels came with lurching tread and stood in loose
fantastic ring
With neck outstretched and swaying head and mouth
all slackly slobbering,
And drew from some unclean recess within their body's
secret lair
A bladder smeared with filthiness that bubbled on the
morning air. 95
For there, upon the shining plain a city radiantly lay,
Coloured against the rising day, amid the snow a
jewelled stain,
And in her walls a spacious gate gave entrance to a
varied stream
Of folk that went incorporate like figures in a silent
dream,
And high above the roofs arose, more coloured for the
hueless snows, 100
The domes of churches, bronze and green, like peacocks
in their painted sheen.
The merchant, with a trembling hand extended far,
extended wide
Against illusion's fairyland, at length articulately
cried:
"Irkutsk ! but twice a hundred miles remained of weary
pilgrimage
Before we hoped with happy smiles to reach our final
anchorage. 105.
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