Page:Thalaba the Destroyer 1809 Vol 1 - Southey.djvu/37

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I. 19

“The unbelieving ones.
“I too, of stubborn unbelieving heart,
“Heard him, and heeded not.
“It chanced my father went the way of man,
“He perish’d in his sins.
“The funeral rites were duly paid,
“We bound a camel to his grave,
“And left it there to die,
“So if the resurrection came
“Together they might rise.
“I past my father’s grave,
“I heard the Camel moan.
“She was his favourite beast,
“One who had carried me in infancy,
“The first that by myself I learnt to mount.
“Her limbs were lean with famine, and her eyes
“Look’d ghastlily with want.
“She knew me as I past,
“She star’d me in the face.
“My heart was touch’d, had it been human else?
“I thought no eye was near, and broke her bonds,
“And drove her forth to liberty and life.
“The Prophet Houd beheld,