Goddess, around thy radiant throne

The scaly shoals in spangled vesture shone,
Some slowly, through green waves advancing,
Some swiftly glancing,

As each thy mild mysterious power impell'd:
E'en orcs and river dragons felt

Their iron bosoms melt

With scorching heat; for love the mightiest quell'd.

But straight ascending vapours rare
O'ercanopied thy seat with lucid air,

While, through young Indra's new dominions
Unnumber'd pinions

Mix'd with thy beams a thousand varying dyes
Of birds or insects, who pursued
Their flying loves, or woo'd

Them yielding, and with music fill'd the skies.

And now, bedeck'd with sparkling isles
Like rising stars, the watery desert smiles;
Smooth plains by waving forests bounded,
With hillocks rounded,

Send forth a shaggy brood, who, frisking light
In mingled flocks of faithful pairs,

Impart their tender cares :

All animals to love their kind invite.

Nor they alone: those vivid gems,

That dance and glitter on their leafy stems,
Thy voice inspires, thy bounty dresses,

Thy rapture blesses;

From yon tall palm, who, like a sunborn king,

His proud tiara spreads elate,

To those who throng his gate,

Where purple chieftains vernal tribute bring.

Q

A gale so sweet o'er Ganga breathes,

That in soft smiles her graceful cheek she wreaths. Mark where her argent brow she raises,

And blushing gazes

On yon fresh Cétaca, whose amorous flower
Throws fragrance from his flaunting hair,
While with his blooming fair

He blends perfume, and multiplies the bower.

Thus, in one vast eternal gyre,

Compact or fluid shapes, instinct with fire,
Lead, as they dance, this gay creation,
Whose mild gradation

Of melting tints illudes the visual ray:
Dense earth in springing herbage lives,
Thence life and nurture gives

To sentient forms, that sink again to clay.

Ye maids and youths on fruitful plains,
Where Lacshmi revels and Bhavani reigns,
Oh, haste! oh, bring your flowery treasures,
To rapid measures

Tripping at eve these hallow'd banks along;
The power, in yon
dim shrines adored,

To primal waves restored,

With many a smiling race shall bless your song.

TO INDRA.

The Argument.

So many allusions to Hindu Mythology occur in the following Ode that it would be scarce intelligible without an explanatory introduction, which, on every account, and on all occasions, appears preferable to notes in the margin.

A distinct idea of the god, whom the poem celebrates, may be collected from a passage in the ninth section of the Gità, where the sudden change of measure has an effect similar to that of the finest modulation:

te punyamasadya surendra locam
asnanti divyan dividevabhogan,
te tam bhuctwa swergalocam visalam
cshine punye mertyalocam visanti.

These, having through virtue reached the mansion of the king of Sura, feast on the exquisite heavenly food of the gods: they, who have enjoyed this lofty region of Swerga, but whose virtue is exhausted, revisit the habitation of mortals.'

Indra, therefore, or the King of Immortals, corresponds with one of the ancient Jupiters (for several of that name were worshiped in Europe), and particularly with Jupiter the Conductor,