Beyond the far Cathayan wall,

A thousand leagues athwart the sky,

The scarlet stars and mornings die,

The gilded moons and sunsets fall.

Across the sulphur-colored sands

With bales of silk the camels fare,

Harnessed with vermil and with vair,

Into the blue and burning lands.

And, ah, the song the drivers sing,

To while the desert leagues away—

A song they sang in old Cathay,

Ere youth had left the eldest king,—

Ere love and beauty both grew old,

And wonder and romance were flown

On fiery wings to worlds unknown,

To stars of undiscovered gold.

And I their alien words would know,

And follow past the lonely Wall,

Where gilded moons and sunsets fall,

As in a song of long ago.