Lamb, Charles, "Lines Written in the Vale of Zoar, Coast of Arabia." in The Bijou; (London: William Pickering , 1828)
   
      
         
            
               The Bijou; 
               or Annual of Literature and the Arts
            
            compiled by William Fraser
            
            
               
                  William Pickering
               
               London
            
            1828
            
               
                  
               
            
         
      
      
         
            
               Lines Written in the Vale of Zoar, Coast of Arabia
            
            
               By Charles Lamb, Esq.
            
            
               A SCENE of Araby! — but not the blest; — 
               Behold a multitude of mountains wild
               And bare and cloudless to the skies up- piled
               In forky peaks, and shapes uncouth, possest
               Of grandeur stern indeed, but beauty none;
               Their sterile sides, by herb, or blade undrest,
               Burning and whitening in the ardent sun.
               Amid the crags — her undisputed reign — 
               Pale Desolation sits, and sadly smiles,
               And half the horror of her state beguiles,
               To see her empire spreading to the plain;
               For there even wandering Arabs seldom stray,
               Or, coming, do but eye the drear domain,
               And haste, as from the vale of Death, away!