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Like ships, that have gone down at sea,
When heav'n was all tranquillity!

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A word unkind or wrongly taken — Oh! love, that tempests never shook,

A breath, a touch like this hath shaken.
And ruder words will soon rush in

To spread the breach that words begin ;
And eyes forget the gentle ray
They wore in courtship's smiling day;
And voices lose the tone that shed
A tenderness round all they said;
Till fast declining, one by one,
The sweetnesses of love are gone,
And hearts, so lately mingled, seem

Like broken clouds, or like the stream,

That smiling left the mountain's brow,

As though its waters ne'er could sever,

Yet, ere it reach the plain below,

Breaks into floods, that part for ever.

Oh you, that have the charge of Love,
Keep him in rosy bondage bound,

X

I

As in the Fields of Bliss above

He sits, with flowrets fetter'd round;

7

Loose not a tie that round him clings,
Nor ever let him use his wings;
For ev'n an hour, a minute's flight
Will rob the plumes of half their light.
Like that celestial bird, — whose nest
Is found beneath far Eastern skies,
Whose wings, though radiant when at rest,
Lose all their glory when he flies! 3

Some difference, of this dangerous kind, —
By which, though light, the links that bind
The fondest hearts may soon be riven;
Some shadow in love's summer heaven,
Which, though a fleecy speck at first,
May yet in awful thunder burst; -
Such cloud it is, that now hangs over
The heart of the Imperial Lover,

7 See the representation of the Eastern Cupid, pinioned closely round with wreaths of flowers, in Picart's Cérémonies Religieuses. 8 "Among the birds of Tonquin is a species of goldfinch, which sings so melodiously that it is called the Celestial Bird. Its wings, when it is perched, appear variegated with beautiful colours, but when it flies they lose all their splendour.". Grosier.

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And far hath banish'd from his sight

His NOURMAHAL, his Haram's Light!

Hence is it, on this happy night,

When Pleasure through the fields and groves
Has let loose all her world of loves,

And

every

heart has found its own,

He wanders, joyless and alone,

And weary as that bird of Thrace,

Whose pinion knows no resting-place. '

In vain the loveliest cheeks and eyes

This Eden of the earth supplies

9

Come crowding round-the cheeks are pale,
The eyes are dim-though rich the spot
With every flow'r this earth has got,

What is it to the nightingale,

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If there his darling rose is not?
In vain the Valley's smiling throng

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9" As these birds on the Bosphorus are never known to rest, they are called by the French 'les ames damnées."" - Dalloway.

I "You may place a hundred handfuls of fragrant herbs and flowers before the nightingale, yet he wishes not, in his constant heart, for more than the sweet breath of his beloved rose,' Jami.

He heeds them not

one smile of hers

Is worth a world of worshippers.

They but the Star's adorers are,

She is the Heav'n that lights the Star!

Hence is it too that NOURMAHAL,
Amid the luxuries of this hour,

Far from the joyous festival,

Sits in her own sequester'd bower,
With no one near, to soothe or aid,
But that inspir'd and wond'rous maid,
NAMOUNA, the Enchantress; - one,
O'er whom his race the golden sun
For unremember'd years has run,
Yet never saw her blooming brow
Younger or fairer than 'tis now.
Nay, rather, as the west-wind's sigh
Freshens the flower it passes by,

Time's wing but seem'd, in stealing o'er,

To leave her lovelier than before.

Yet on her smiles a sadness hung,

And when, as oft, she spoke or sung Of other worlds, there came a light From her dark eyes so strangely bright,

That all believ'd nor man nor earth

Were conscious of NAMOUNA's birth!

All spells and talismans she knew,
From the great Mantra,' which around
The Air's sublimer Spirits drew,

To the gold gems 3 of AFRIC, bound
Upon the wandering Arab's arm,

4

To keep him from the Siltim's harm.
And she had pledg'd her powerful art,
Pledg'd it with all the zeal and heart

Of one who knew, though high her sphere,
What 'twas to lose a love so dear,

To find some spell that should recall
Her SELIM's' smile to NOURMAHAL !

2 "He is said to have found the great Mantra, spell or talisman, through which he ruled over the elements and spirits of all denominations.". Wilford.

3 "The gold jewels of Jinnie, which are called by the Arabs El Herrez, from the supposed charm they contain."— Jackson.

4"A demon, supposed to haunt woods, &c. in a human shape.”Richardson.

5 The name of Jehanguire before his accession to the throne,

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