The board was spread with fruits and wine,
With grapes of gold, like those that shine
On CASBIN hills;[321]--pomegranates full
Of melting sweetness, and the pears,
And sunniest apples[322] that CAUBUL
In all its thousand gardens[323] bears;--
Plantains, the golden and the green,
MALAYA'S nectared mangusteen;[324]
Prunes of BOCKHARA, and sweet nuts
From the far groves of SAMARCAND,
And BASRA dates, and apricots,
Seed of the Sun,[325] from IRAN'S land;--
With rich conserve of Visna cherries,[326]
Of orange flowers, and of those berries
That, wild and fresh, the young gazelles
Feed on in ERAC's rocky dells.[327]
All these in richest vases smile,
In baskets of pure santal-wood,
And urns of porcelain from that isle[328]
Sunk underneath the Indian flood,
Whence oft the lucky diver brings
Vases to grace the halls of kings.
Wines too of every clime and hue
Around their liquid lustre threw;
Amber Rosolli,[329]--the bright dew
From vineyards of the Green-Sea gushing;[330]
And SHIRAZ wine that richly ran
As if that jewel large and rare,
The ruby for which KUBLAI-KHAN
Offered a city's wealth,[331] was blushing
Melted within the goblets there!
And amply SELIM quaffs of each,
And seems resolved the flood shall reach
His inward heart,--shedding around
A genial deluge, as they run,
That soon shall leave no spot undrowned
For Love to rest his wings upon.
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