* * * * *

Unforeseeing one! Yes, he fought on the Marathon day; 105
So, when Persia was dust, all cried, "To Akropolis!
Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due!
'Athens is saved, thank Pan,' go shout!" He flung down his shield,
Ran like fire once more; and the space 'twixt the Fennel-field
And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through, 110
Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine through clay,
Joy in his blood bursting his heart, he died--the bliss!

So, to this day, when friend meets friend, the word of salute
Is still "Rejoice!"--his word which brought rejoicing indeed.
So is Pheidippides happy forever--the noble strong man 115
Who could race like a god, bear the face of a god, whom a god loved
so well;
He saw the land saved he had helped to save, and was suffered to tell
Such tidings, yet never decline, but, gloriously as he began,
So to end gloriously--once to shout, thereafter be mute:
"Athens is saved!"--Pheidippides dies in the shout for his 120
meed.

MULEYKEH

If a stranger passed the tent of Hoseyn, he cried, "A churl's!"
Or haply, "God help the man who has neither salt nor bread!"
--"Nay," would a friend exclaim, "he needs nor pity nor scorn
More than who spends small thought on the shore-sand, picking pearls,
--Holds but in light esteem the seed-sort, bears instead 5
On his breast a moon-like prize, some orb which of night makes morn.

"What if no flocks and herds enrich the son of Sinan?
They went when his tribe was mulct, ten thousand camels the due,
Blood-value paid perforce for a murder done of old.
'God gave them, let them go! But never since time began, 10
Muleykeh, peerless mare, owned master the match of you,
And you are my prize, my Pearl; I laugh at men's land and gold!'

"So in the pride of his soul laughs Hoseyn--and right, I say.
Do the ten steeds run a race of glory? Outstripping all,
Ever Muleykeh stands first steed at the victor's staff. 15
Who started, the owner's hope, gets shamed and named, that day.
'Silence,' or, last but one, is 'The Cuffed,' as we use to call
Whom the paddock's lord thrusts forth. Right, Hoseyn, I say, to
laugh!"

"Boasts he Muleykeh the Pearl?" the stranger replies: "Be sure
On him I wast