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Before their mirrors count the time,

And

grow still lovelier every hour.

But never yet hath bride or maid

In ARABY'S gay Harams smil'd,
Whose boasted brightness would not fade
Before AL HASSAN's blooming child.

Light as the angel shapes that bless
An infant's dream, yet not the less
Rich in all woman's loveliness;

2

With eyes so pure, that from their ray
Dark Vice would turn abash'd away,
Blinded like serpents, when they gaze
Upon the emerald's virgin blaze! -
Yet, fill'd with all youth's sweet desires,
Mingling the meek and vestal fires
Of other worlds with all the bliss,
The fond, weak tenderness of this!
A soul, too, more than half divine,

2

Where, through some shades of earthly feeling,

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They say that if a snake or serpent fix his eyes on the lustre of those stones (emeralds), he immediately becomes blind.” — Ahmed

ben Abdalaziz, Treatise on Jewels.

Religion's soften'd glories shine,

Like light through summer foliage stealing,

Shedding a glow of such mild hue,
So warm, and yet so shadowy too,
As makes the very darkness there
More beautiful than light elsewhere!

Such is the maid who, at this hour,
Hath risen from her restless sleep,
And sits alone in that high bower,

Watching the still and shining deep.
Ah! 'twas not thus, with tearful eyes

And beating heart,

- she us'd to gaze

On the magnificent earth and skies,

In her own land, in happier days. Why looks she now so anxious down Among those rocks, whose rugged frown Blackens the mirror of the deep?

Whom waits she all this lonely night?

Too rough the rocks, too bold the steep, For man to scale that turret's height!

So deem'd at least her thoughtful sire,
When high, to catch the cool night-air,

After the day-beam's withering fire, 3

3

He built her bower of freshness there, And had it deck'd with costliest skill,

And fondly thought it safe as fair:-
Think, reverend dreamer! think so still,

Nor wake to learn what Love can dare
Love, all-defying Love, who sees
No charm in trophies won with ease;
Whose rarest, dearest fruits of bliss
Are pluck'd on Danger's precipice!
Bolder than they, who dare not dive
For pearls, but when the sea's at rest,
Love, in the tempest most alive,

Hath ever held that pearl the best
He finds beneath the stormiest water!
Yes-ARABY's unrivall'd daughter,

Though high that tower, that rock-way rude,
There's one who, but to kiss thy cheek,
Would climb th' untrodden solitude

Of ARARAT's tremendous peak, ‘

4

3 At Gombaroon and the Isle of Ormus it is sometimes so hot, that the people are obliged to lie all day in the water.

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Marco Polo.

4 This mountain is generally supposed to be inaccessible.

And think its steeps, though dark and dread,
Heav'n's path-ways, if to thee they led !
Ev'n now thou seest the flashing spray,
That lights his oar's impatient way; —
Ev'n now thou hear'st the sudden shock
Of his swift bark against the rock,
And stretchest down thy arms of snow,
As if to lift him from below!
Like her to whom, at dead of night,
The bridegroom, with his locks of light,
Came, in the flush of love and pride,
And scal'd the terrace of his bride; -
When, as she saw him rashly spring,
And mid-way up in danger cling,

5

She flung him down her long black hair,
Exclaiming breathless, "There, love, there!"

And scarce did manlier nerve uphold

The hero ZAL in that fond hour,

5 In one of the books of the Shâh Nâmeh, when Zal (a celebrated hero of Persia, remarkable for his white hair) comes to the terrace of his mistress Rodahver at night, she lets down her long tresses to assist him in his ascent; — he, however, manages it in a less romantic way by fixing his crook in a projecting beam. · v. Champion's Ferdosi.

Than wings the youth who fleet and bold

Now climbs the rocks to HINDA's bower.

See

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light as up their granite steeps

The rock-goats of ARABIA clamber, ❝ Fearless from crag to crag he leaps,

6

And now is in the maiden's chamber.

She loves but knows not whom she loves,
Nor what his race, nor whence he came;
Like one who meets, in Indian groves,

Some beauteous bird, without a name,
Brought by the last ambrosial breeze,
From isles in the' undiscover'd seas,
To show his plumage for a day

To wondering eyes, and wing away!

!.

Will he thus fly her nameless lover?

Alla forbid ! 'twas by a moon

As fair as this, while singing over

Some ditty to her soft Kanoon, '

6 "On the lofty hills of Arabia Petræa are rock-goats.”— Niebuhr.

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7 Canun, espèce de psalterion, avec des cordes de boyaux; les dames en touchent dans le serrail, avec des décailles armées de pointes de coco." Toderini, translated by De Cournand.

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