Page:Ferishtah's fancies - Browning (1884).djvu/22

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FERISHTAH'S FANCIES.
Lives beauty.' I persisting—'Beauty—yes,In thy mind and in my mind, every mindThat apprehends: but outside—so to speak—Did beauty live in deed as well as word,Was this life lived, was this death died—not dreamed?''Many attested it for fact' saidst thou.'Many!' but mark, Sir! Half as long agoAs such things were,—supposing that they were,—Reigned great Shah Abbas: he too lived and died—How say they? Why, so strong of arm, of footSo swift, he stayed a lion in his leapOn a stag's haunch,—with one hand grasped the stag,With one struck down the lion: yet, no less,Himself, that same day, feasting after sport,Perceived a spider drop into his wine,
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