III + 

The Mosque + 

In the bewildering grove of colonnades, + 

Once brilliant with a flood of saffron light, + 

Poured from ten thousand lanterns day and night, + 

Her memory, like spikenard in the glades + 

Of distant Ind or Yemen, never fades; + 

And her devotion, though the ages blight + 

The mystic bloom of her divine delight, + 

Still casts on alien altars longing shades. + 

But through the mihrabs which the humble hand + 

Of genius wrought, o’er marbles hollowed deep + 

By knees that only Piety could command, + 

I see Oblivion coming forth to reap;⁠— + 

Arabia, in Allah’s chaplet strung, + 

Is but a word on Andalusia’s tongue. + 