...ah! change the theme, And talk of odours, talk of wine, Talk of the flow'rs that round us bloom: 'Tis all a cloud, 'tis all a dream; To love and joy thy thoughts confine, Nor hope to pierce the sacred gloom. Beauty has such resistless pow'r, That ev'n the chaste Egyptian dame Sighed for the blooming...

...change the theme, And talk of odours, talk of wine, Talk of the flow'rs that round us bloom : 'Tis all a cloud, 'tis all a dream ; To love and joy thy thoughts confine, Nor hope to pierce the sacred gloom. Beauty has such resistless pow'r, That ev'n the chaste Egyptian dame Sigh'd for the blooming...

...ah! change the theme, And talk of odors, talk of wine, Talk of the flow'rs that round us bloom: Tis all a cloud, 'tis all a dream; To love and joy thy thoughts confine, Nor hope to pierce the sacred gloom. Beauty has such resistless pow'r, That ev'n the chaste Egyptian dame Sighed for the blooming...

...theme. And talk of odours, talk of wine. HAFSAH - HAKIM Talk of the flowers that round us bloom: Tis all a cloud, 'tis all a dream: To love and joy, thy thoughts confine. Nor hope lo pierce the sacred gloom. Beauty has such resistless power. That ever the chaste Egyptian dame Sigh'd...

...change the theme, And talk of odours, talk of wine, Talk of the flowers that round us bloom : — 'Tis all a cloud, 'tis all a dream. To love and joy thy thoughts confine, Nor hope to pierce the sacred gloom. It is not difficult to see why, decades later, Fitz Gerald was so charmed by "A Persian...

...ah, change the theme, And talk of odours, talk of wine, Talk of the flowers that round us bloom; 'Tis all a cloud, 'tis all a dream; To love and joy thy thoughts confine, Nor hope to pierce the sacred gloom. With respect to the first stanza of the foregoing, we must observe that the literal rendering-...