Explore "The Mameluke" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ I. She was a queen. 'Midst mutes and slaves, / A mameluke, he loved her. -- Waves / Dashed not more hopelessly the paves / Of her high marble palace-stair / Than lashed his love his heart's despair. -- / As souls in Hell dream Paradise, / He suffered yet forgot it there / Beneath Rommaneh's houri eyes.
/ II. With passion eating at his heart / He served her beauty, but dared dart / No look at her or word impart. -- / Taïfi leather's perfumed tan / Beneath her, on a low divan / She lay 'mid cushions stuffed with down; / A slave-girl with an ostrich fan / Sat by her in a golden gown.