Reminiscence by Thomas Bailey Aldrich Lyrics

Though I am native to this frozen zone
That half the twelvemonth torpid lies, or dead;
Though the cold azure arching overhead
And the Atlantic's never-ending moan
Are mine by heritage, I must have known
Life otherwhere in epochs long since fled;
For in my veins some Orient blood is red,
And through my thought are lotus blossoms blown.
I do remember. . . it was just at dusk,
Near a walled garden at the river's turn
(A thousand summers seem but yesterday!)
A Nubian girl, more sweet than Khorja musk,
Came to the water-tank to fill her urn,
And, with the urn, she bore my heart away!