Abu Midjan + 

“If I sit in the dust + 

For lauding good wine, + 

Ha, ha! it is just: + 

So sits the vine!” + 

Abu Midjan sang as he sat in chains, + 

For the blood of the grape ran the juice of his veins. + 

The Prophet had said, “O Faithful, drink not!” + 

Abu Midjan drank till his heart was hot; + 

Yea, he sang a song in praise of wine, + 

He called it good names⁠—a joy divine, + 

The giver of might, the opener of eyes, + 

Love’s handmaid, the water of Paradise! + 

Therefore Saad his chief spake words of blame, + 

And set him in irons⁠—a fettered flame; + 

But he sings of the wine as he sits in his chains, + 

For the blood of the grape runs the juice of his veins: + 

“I will not think + 

That the Prophet said + 

‘Ye shall not drink + 

Of the flowing red!’ ” + 

“ ’Tis a drenched brain + 

Whose after-sting + 

Cries out, ‘Refrain: + 

’Tis an evil thing!’ + 

“But I will dare, + 

With a goodly drought, + 

To drink, nor spare + 

Till my thirst be out. + 

“I do not laugh + 

Like a Christian fool + 

But in silence quaff + 

The liquor cool + 

“At door of tent + 

’Neath evening star, + 

With daylight spent, + 

And Uriel afar! + 

“Then, through the sky, + 

Lo, the emerald hills! + 

My faith swells high, + 

My bosom thrills: + 

“I see them hearken, + 

The Houris that wait! + 

Their dark eyes darken + 

The diamond gate! + 

“I hear the float + 

Of their chant divine, + 

And my heart like a boat + 

Sails thither on wine! + 

“Can an evil thing + 

Make beauty more? + 

Or a sinner bring + 

To the heavenly door? + 

“The sun-rain fine + 

Would sink and escape, + 

But is drunk by the vine, + 

Is stored in the grape: + 

“And the prisoned light + 

I free again: + 

It flows in might + 

Through my shining brain + 

“I love and I know; + 

The truth is mine; + 

I walk in the glow + 

Of the sun-bred wine. + 

“I will not think + 

That the Prophet said + 

‘Ye shall not drink + 

Of the flowing red!’ + 

“For his promises, lo, + 

Sevenfold they shine + 

When the channels o’erflow + 

With the singing wine! + 

“But I care not, I!⁠—’tis a small annoy + 

To sit in chains for a heavenly joy!” + 

Away went the song on the light wind borne; + 

His head sank down, and a ripple of scorn + 

Shook the hair that flowed from his curling lip + 

As he eyed his brown limbs in the iron’s grip. + 

Sudden his forehead he lifted high: + 

A faint sound strayed like a moth-wing by! + 

Like beacons his eyes burst blazing forth: + 

A dust-cloud he spied in the distant north! + 

A noise and a smoke on the plain afar? + 

’Tis the cloud and the clang of the Muslim war! + 

He leapt aloft like a tiger snared; + 

The wine in his veins through his visage flared; + 

He tore at his fetters in bootless ire, + 

He called the Prophet, he named his sire; + 

From his lips, with wild shout, the Tecbir burst; + 

He danced in his irons; the Giaours he cursed; + 

And his eyes they flamed like a beacon dun, + 

Or like wine in the crystal twixt eye and sun. + 

The lady of Saad heard him shout, + 

Heard his fetters ring on the stones about + 

The heart of a warrior she understood, + 

And the rage of the thwarted battle-mood: + 

Her name, with the cry of an angry prayer, + 

He called but once, and the lady was there. + 

“The Giaour!” he panted, “the Godless brute! + 

And me like a camel tied foot to foot! + 

Let me go, and I swear by Allah’s fear + 

At sunset I don again this gear, + 

Or lie in a heaven of starry eyes, + 

Kissed by moon-maidens of Paradise! + 

O lady, grant me the death of the just! + 

Hark to the hurtle! see the dust!” + 

With ready fingers the noble dame + 

Unlocked her husband’s iron blame; + 

Brought his second horse, his Abdon, out, + 

And his second hauberk, light and stout; + 

Harnessed the warrior, and hight him go + 

An angel of vengeance upon the foe. + 

With clank of steel and thud of hoof + 

Away he galloped; she climbed the roof. + 

She sees the cloud and the flashes that leap + 

From the scythe-shaped swords inside it that sweep + 

Down with back-stroke the disordered swath: + 

Thither he speeds, a bolt of wrath! + 

Straight as an arrow she sees him go, + 

Abu Midjan, the singer, upon the foe! + 

Like an eagle he vanishes in the cloud, + 

And the thunder of battle bursts more loud, + 

Mingled of crashes and blows and falls, + 

Of the whish that severs the throat that calls, + 

Of neighing and shouting and groaning grim: + 

Abu Midjan, she sees no more of him! + 

Northward the battle drifts afar + 

On the flowing tide of the holy war. + 

Lonely across the desert sand, + 

From his wrist by its thong hung his clotted brand, + 

Red in the sunset’s level flame + 

Back to his bonds Abu Midjan came. + 

“Lady, I swear your Saad’s horse⁠— + 

The Prophet himself might have rode a worse! + 

Like the knots of a serpent the play of his flesh + 

As he tore to the quarry in Allah’s mesh! + 

I forgot him, and mowed at the traitor weeds, + 

Which fell before me like rushes and reeds, + 

Or like the tall poppies that sudden drop low + 

Their heads to an urchin’s unstrung bow! + 

Fled the Giaour; the faithful flew after to kill; + 

I turned to surrender: beneath me still + 

Was Abdon unjaded, fresh in force, + 

Faithful and fearless⁠—a heavenly horse! + 

Give him water, lady, and barley to eat; + 

Then haste thee and fetter the wine-bibber’s feet.” + 

To the terrace he went, and she to the stall; + 

She tended the horse like guest in hall, + 

Then to the warrior unhasting returned. + 

The fire of the fight in his eyes yet burned, + 

But he sat in a silence that might betoken + 

One ashamed that his heart had spoken⁠— + 

Though where was the word to breed remorse? + 

He had lauded only his chief’s brave horse! + 

Not a word she spoke, but his fetters locked; + 

He watched with a smile that himself bemocked; + 

She left him seated in caitiff-plight, + 

Like one that had feared and fled the fight. + 

But what singer ever sat lonely long + 

Ere the hidden fountain burst in song! + 

The battle wine foamed in the warrior’s veins, + 

And he sang sword-tempest who sat in chains. + 

“Oh, the wine + 

Of the vine + 

Is a feeble thing! + 

In the rattle + 

Of battle + 

The true grapes spring! + 

“When on whir + 

Of Tecbir + 

Allah’s wrath flies, + 

And the power + 

Of the Giaour + 

A blasted leaf lies! + 

“When on force + 

Of the horse + 

The arm flung abroad + 

Is sweeping, + 

And reaping + 

The harvest of God! + 

“Ha! they drop + 

From the top + 

To the sear heap below! + 

Ha! deeper, + 

Down steeper, + 

The infidels go! + 

“Azrael + 

Sheer to hell + 

Shoots the foul shoals! + 

There Monker + 

And Nakir + 

Torture their souls! + 

“But when drop + 

On their crop + 

The scimitars red, + 

And under + 

War’s thunder + 

The faithful lie dead, + 

“Oh, bright + 

Is the light + 

On hero slow breaking! + 

Rapturous faces + 

Bent for embraces + 

Watch for his waking! + 

“And he hears + 

In his ears + 

The voice of Life’s river, + 

Like a song + 

Of the strong, + 

Jubilant ever! + 

“Oh, the wine + 

Of the vine + 

May lead to the gates, + 

But the rattle + 

Of battle + 

Wakes the angel who waits! + 

“To the lord + 

Of the sword + 

Open it must! + 

The drinker, + 

The thinker + 

Sits in the dust! + 

“He dreams + 

Of the gleams + 

Of their garments of white; + 

He misses + 

Their kisses, + 

The maidens of light! + 

“They long + 

For the strong + 

Who has burst through alarms⁠— + 

Up, by the labour + 

Of stirrup and sabre, + 

Up to their arms! + 

“Oh, the wine of the grape is a feeble ghost! + 

The wine of the fight is the joy of a host!” + 

When Saad came home from the far pursuit, + 

An hour he sat, and an hour was mute. + 

Then he opened his mouth: “Ah, wife, the fight + 

Had been lost full sure, but an arm of might + 

Sudden rose up on the crest of the battle, + 

Flashed blue lightnings, thundered steel rattle, + 

Took up the fighting, and drove it on⁠— + 

Enoch sure, or the good Saint John! + 

Wherever he leaped, like a lion he, + 

The battle was thickest, or soon to be! + 

Wherever he sprang with his lion roar, + 

In a minute the battle was there no more! + 

With a headlong fear, the sinners fled, + 

And we swept them down the steep of the dead: + 

Before us, not from us, did they flee, + 

They ceased in the depths of a new Red Sea! + 

But him who saved us we saw no more; + 

He went as he came, by a secret door! + 

And strangest of all⁠—nor think I err + 

If a miracle I for truth aver⁠— + 

I was close to him thrice⁠—the holy Force + 

Wore my silver-ringed hauberk, rode Abdon my horse!” + 

The lady rose up, withholding her word, + 

And led to the terrace her wondering lord, + 

Where, song-soothed, and weary with battle strain, + 

Abu Midjan sat counting the links of his chain: + 

“The battle was raging, he raging worse; + 

I freed him, harnessed him, gave him thy horse.” + 

“Abu Midjan! the singer of love and of wine! + 

The arm of the battle, it also was thine? + 

Rise up, shake the irons from off thy feet: + 

For the lord of the fight are fetters meet? + 

If thou wilt, then drink till thou be hoar: + 

Allah shall judge thee; I judge no more!” + 

Abu Midjan arose; he flung aside + 

The clanking fetters, and thus he cried: + 

“If thou give me to God and his decrees, + 

Nor purge my sin with the shame of these, + 

Wrath against me I dare not store: + 

In the name of Allah, I drink no more!” + 