Page:An epic of women and other poems (IA epicofwomenother00osha).pdf/100

More jewelries than one could name or know,
  Set in a thousand trinkets or in crowns
Each one a sovereignty, in glittering row
  Numbered the suppliant lands and all her thrones.

And fairest handmaidens in gracious rank,
  Their captive arms enchained with links of gold,
Knelt and poured forth the purple wine she drank,
  Or served her there in postures manifold.

And beaded women of a yellow Ind
  Stood at the couch, with bended hand to ply
Great silver feathered fans wherein the wind
  Gat all the choicest fumes of Araby.

There in the midst, of shape uncouth and hard,
  Juggled his arts some Ethiopian churl;
Changing fierce natures of the spotted pard
  Or serpents of the Nile that creep and curl.

And many a minstrelsy of voice and string,
  Twining sweet sounds like tendrils delicate,
Seemed to ensnare the moments—seemed to cling
  Upon their pleasure all interminate.