Dedication
The poet who dedicates the work to his siblings.
Salaam
The author/narrator presents himself as a stranger from the Orient, an exiled dream, and a guest to the reader.
Poetry
The poet-speaker reflects on the role of poetry in capturing human emotion and spiritual quest.
Ever to Be
The speaker asserts defiant perseverance and transcendent vision amid suffering and abandonment.
Upon the Peak of Sanneen
The poet who sits with his soul on the peak, pleading with it not to leave.
The Philistine
Narrates the fable of the cricket and the corn-crake.
My Burnoose
The speaker who recounts his birth and the loss of his burnoose amulet.
A Spring Dirge
The grieving speaker who addresses spring and love, mourning a loss.
Fardi wa Nafli
The speaker, likely the poet, who prays and sacrifices for his sister's life.
Adele
The speaker who addresses Adele, expressing love and poetic inadequacy.
Nectar and Blood
The speaker who refuses to join the war and declares unwavering devotion to love.
Resurrection
The speaker addresses Winter directly, pleading for Spring to prevail.
Disarmed Desire
The speaker who observes the drifting light and roving desires, and expresses longing for a beloved.
A Better Woe
The speaker reflects on personal desert days, desires, and a yearning for a 'better woe.'
The First and Last
The speaker, pleading for a final kiss and grappling with the end of love.
In the Meadow
The speaker who admires and addresses the beloved in the meadow.
O, Sweet Sometime
The speaker who waits and addresses 'Sometime,' experiencing the emotional turmoil of anticipation.
A Bed of Flame
The speaker who witnesses the smoke and sun and expresses a desire to be the smoke, recalling past suffering.
The Sister of Death
The speaker expresses exhaustion with life's burdens and a yearning for Death and Love.
Retribution
The speaker who once scorned love but now suffers its chains.
Let Thine Eyes Whisper
The speaker offers comfort and reassurance, asking the beloved to trust in their presence and to express love silently.
Lilatu Laili
The speaker who strolls with his soul in his pocket, recalling past loves and fantasies.
Midnight Mood
The speaker expresses intense longing and frustration over unfulfilled love.
Thy Smile
The speaker contemplates the divine and earthly nature of a smile.
Unadorned
The speaker who defends the worth of love and memory against religious condemnation.
Dissolution
The speaker expresses intense longing and dissolution in the beloved's embrace.
A Serenade
The poet who sings the serenade, expressing deep longing and devotion.
The Brass Bed
The speaker who loves the brass bed and dreams beneath its canopy, but is more concerned with the suffering soul it has housed.
Three Golden Threads
The speaker who longs to soar away but is fettered by love's golden threads.
Independent Blossoms
The narrator personifies the blossoms and the rose, presenting a dialogue of independence and servitude.
The God of My Goddess
The speaker who abandons old and new gods for the god of his beloved, and becomes the object of her worship.
A Peasant's Song
The peasant speaker who mourns a lost love and addresses the beloved from a lowly station.
Her First Sorrow
The speaker, a woman betrayed by her lover, expressing sorrow and defiance.
A Nocturn
The speaker recounts a transcendent experience of the soul detached from worldly concerns.
Saada
The speaker who laments Saada's suffering and yearns for her recovery.
Stolen Salvias
The speaker who laments the stolen salvias and recalls his beloved's past actions.
Beneath the Salvias
The speaker who hides their heart beneath the salvias and pleads to be left dreaming of the beloved.
Gone with the Swallows
The speaker who mourns the loss of love and questions whether to forget or remember.
To the Sonnet
The speaker addresses the sonnet directly, celebrating its capacity to contain and express profound emotional and imaginative experiences.
The Tomb and the Rose
The narrator presents the dialogue between the Tomb and the Rose.
Rest
The speaker who has long enshrined and worshipped Rest, seeking it everywhere but finding only its fleeting shadow.
It Was All for Him
The narrator observes the scene on the Brooklyn Bridge and interacts with the lad.
Repentance
The speaker reflects on personal and universal loss, anguish, and the erosion of virtue.
O, Give Me Strength to Take
The speaker who grapples with the demands of love and questions his own strength to receive it.
Near the Cascades
The speaker who yearns for rest and reflects on love and mortality near the cascades.
Onward Keep
The speaker resolves to keep moving forward, reflecting on past sorrow and finding new growth.
Allah wa Ana
The human addressee, who doubts, denies, and defies but is ultimately embraced by the divine.
In Memory of E. M. El-K.
The speaker mourns the loss of E. M. El-K., expressing despair and a search for the soul's continuation.
To Abu'l-Ala
The speaker addresses Abu'l-Ala directly, describing a shared mystical bond and contrasting their own 'riotings of pleasure' with Abu'l-Ala's melancholy.
The Towers and the Night
The voice that presents the dialogue between the Towers and the Night.
The End and the Beginning
The narrator addresses the kings and describes the scene of war's end and renewal.
The Cataclysm
The observer who witnesses the Cataclysm and the resilient signs of life.
Reflections
The narrator walks along the countryside and reflects on the unseen Eye.
The Song of Siva
The speaker who hears the River's call and experiences the night's spiritual joy.
Andalusia
The speaker observes and laments the decline of Andalusia, invoking its past glory.
II: Alhambra
The narrator muses on the Alhambra's glory and decay.
III: The Mosque
The speaker who meditates on memory, devotion, and the passage of time within the mosque.
In the Palm Groves of Memphis
The narrator observes and reflects on the Khamsin's devastation and the enduring nature of faith and thought.
Prayer in the Desert
The speaker who prays fervently for rain and mercy in the desert.
Water and Flowers
The speaker who calls out to the beloved, urging a turn away from distant mirages toward present beauty.
The House of Night
The narrator observes the onset of night and the emergence of a mysterious light, reflecting on cosmic and divine themes.
After Reading King Lear
The speaker reflects on King Lear's suffering and the universal nature of his sorrow.
The Wanderer
The speaker who wanders in alien lands, longing for his native home and reflecting on exile.
Lebanus
The speaker who passionately calls to the beloved, personifying Lebanon and its elements.
The Pagan
The narrator enters the temple as a worshipper, lighting lamps and seeking divine connection.
The Lost Disciple
The disciple who speaks to the Master, confessing his inability to follow due to his attachment to a woman.
From the Arabic
The speaker describes his own emaciated state and identifies his consuming love for Zahra as the cause.
She Went Out Singing
The speaker expresses profound personal grief, claiming their sorrow surpasses that of others.
Hanem
The speaker who recalls a past life encounter with Hanem and laments their separation.
O Freedom
The speaker who fought for freedom for twenty years and now longs to fight again.
The Road of Make-Believe
The narrator describes the woman, the man, and their joint journey on the Road of Make-Believe.
Renunciation
The pilgrim who knocks at the Beloved's door, first as 'I' then as 'thyself'.
A Sufi Song
The speaker who offers their heart to the divine.
The Two Brothers
The speaker who declares brotherhood with God, recounting their shared origin and journey through creation.
God of the Distances, Hear Us
The collective voice of humanity, speaking as 'we' and 'us', addressing God in a plea for guidance.
Badruddin
The speaker who addresses Badruddin and the Beloved, expressing longing and spiritual transformation.
The Sufi
The speaker who closes his eyes and experiences the caravan of life and love paying toll to his soul.
The Fugitive
The speaker who flees from the divine presence, recounting his rebellion and pride.
A Chant of Mystics
The collective voice of the mystics, speaking as 'we' throughout the chant.
