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Read more poems by Robert Service: Robert Service Poems at Poetry X.

A gaunt and hoary slab of stone
     I found in desert place,
And wondered why it lay alone
     In that abandoned place.
Said I: 'Maybe a Palace stood
     Where now the lizards crawl,
With courts of musky quietude
               And turrets tall.

Maybe where low the vultures wing
     'Mid mosque and minaret,
The proud pavilion of a King
     Was luminously set.
'Mid fairy fountains, alcoves dim,
     Upon a garnet throne
He ruled,--and now all trace of him
               Is just this stone.

Ah well, I've done with wandering,
     But from a blousy bar
I see with drunk imagining
     A Palace like a star.
I build it up from one grey stone
     With gardens hanging high,
And dream . . . Long, long ere Babylon
               It's King was I.

Added: 29 Jun 2002 | Last Read: 3 Sep 2026 12:45 AM | Viewed: 5151 times

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