THE ROYAL TOMBS OF GOLCONDA

by: Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949)

      MUSE among these silent fanes
      Whose spacious darkness guards your dust;
      Around me sleep the hoary plains
      That hold your ancient wars in trust.
      I pause, my dreaming spirit hears,
      Across the wind's unquiet tides,
      The glimmering music of your spears,
      The laughter of your royal brides.
       
      In vain, O Kings, doth time aspire
      To make your names oblivion's sport,
      While yonder hill wears like a tier
      The ruined grandeur of your fort.
      Though centuries falter and decline,
      Your proven strongholds shall remain
      Embodied memories of your line,
      Incarnate legends of your reign.
       
      O Queens, in vain old Fate decreed
      Your flower-like bodies to the tomb;
      Death is in truth the vital seed
      Of your imperishable bloom
      Each new-born year the bulbuls sing
      Their songs of your renascent loves;
      Your beauty wakens with the spring
      To kindle these pomegranate groves.

"The Royal Tombs of Golconda" is reprinted from The Golden Threshold. Sarojini Naidu. New York: John Lane Company, 1916.

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