Classic Poem

Who sweetheart kind and fair and mind Unracked of care and pain doth hold,
Fortune to friend and happiness To comrade boon the swain doth hold.

The doorway of Love's sanctuary Far loftier than Reason is;
He only may that threshold kiss In hand who heart and brain doth hold

Her strait sweet mouth is as it were The signet-ring of Solomon,
The graving on whose ruby seal The world for its domain doth hold.

Red ruby lip and musk-black down, Since that as well as this is hers,
My soul my charmer's ransom be, Whose loveliness these twain doth hold!

Whilst on the surface of the earth Thou art, count ableness for gain;
For Time beneath the earth dead folk And powerless amain doth hold.

O affluent, with contumely Look not upon the weak and wan;
For oft the wayside beggarman Chief room in honour's fane doth hold.

The poor man's prayers calamity From soul and body still avert:
Who by his harvest profiteth, That gleaners in disdain doth hold?

Speak thou, o East wind, of my love To yonder sovran of the fair,
Who Jems and Keis, as her least slaves, By hundreds, in her chain doth hold;

And if " I want no bankrupt swain " , She say, " like Hafiz, " answer thou,
" There's many a Sultan beggarmen To comrades boon full fain doth hold. "