PREPARE thy soul, young AZIM!-thou hast braved
The bands of GREECE, still mighty though enslaved
Hast faced her phalanx, armed with all its fame,
Her Macedonian pikes and globes of flame;
All this hast fronted, with firm heart and brow,
But a more perilous trial waits thee now, —
Woman's bright eyes, a dazzling host of eyes
From every land where woman smiles or sighs;
Of every hue, as Love may chance to raise
His black or azure banner in their blaze;
And each sweet mode of warfare, from the flash
That lightens boldly through the shadowy lash,
To the sly, stealing splendors, almost hid,
Like swords half-sheathed, beneath the downcast
Such, AZIM, is the lovely, luminous host
Now led against thee; and, let conquerors boast
Their fields of fame, he who in virtue arms
A young, warm spirit against beauty's charms,
Who feels her brightness, yet defies her thrall,
Is the best, bravest conqueror of them all.
Now, through the Harem chambers, moving lights And busy shapes proclaim the toilet's rites;
From room to room the ready handmaids hie,
Some skilled to wreathe the turban tastefully,
Or hang the veil, in negligence of shade,
O'er the warm blushes of the youthful maid,
Who, if between the folds but one eye shone,
Like SEBA's Queen could vanquish with that
While some bring leaves of Henna, to imbue
The fingers' ends with a bright roseate hue,62
So bright, that in the mirror's depth they seem
Like tips of coral branches in the stream:
And others mix the Kohol's jetty dye,
To give that long, dark languish to the eye,6
Which makes the maids, whom kings are proud to
From fair Circassia's vales, so beautiful.
All is in motion; rings and plumes and pearls
Are shining everywhere:- some younger girls
Are gone by moonlight to the garden-beds,
To gather fresh, cool chaplets for their heads;-
Gay creatures! sweet, though mournful, 't is to see
How each prefers a garland from that tree
Which brings to mind her childhood's innocent day,
And the dear fields and friendships far away.
The maid of INDIA, blest again to hold
In her full lap the Champac's leaves of gold,*
Thinks of the time when, by the GANGES' flood
Her little playmates scattered many a bud
Upon her long black hair, with glossy gleam
Just dripping from the consecrated stream;
While the young Arab, haunted by the smell
Of her own mountain flowers, as by a spell,
The sweet Elcaya,65 and that courteous tree
Which bows to all who seek its canopy,"
Sees, called up round her by these magic scents,
The well, the camels, and her father's tents;
Sighs for the home she left with little pain,
And wishes even its sorrows back again!
Meanwhile, through vast illuminated halls,
Silent and bright, where nothing but the falls
Of fragrant waters, gushing with cool sound
From many a jasper fount, is heard around,
Young Azim roams bewildered, nor can guess
What means this maze of light and loneliness.
Here, the way leads, o'er tessellated floors
Or mats of CAIRO, through long corridors,
Where, ranged in cassolets and silver urns,
Sweet wood of aloe or of sandal burns;
And spicy rods, such as illume at night
The bowers of TIBET," send forth odorous light,
Like Peris' wands, when pointing out the road
For some pure Spirit to its blest abode:-
And here, at once, the glittering saloon
Bursts on his sight, boundless and bright as noon;
Where, in the midst, reflecting back the rays
In broken rainbows, a fresh fountain plays
High as th' enamelled cupola, which towers
All rich with arabesques of gold and flowers :
And the mosaic floor beneath shines through
The sprinkling of that fountain's silv'ry dew,
Like the wet, glistening shells, of every dye,
That on the margin of the Red Sea lie.
Here too he traces the kind visitings
Of woman's love in those fair, living things
Of land and wave, whose fate-in bondage thrown For their weak loveliness - is like her own!
On one side, gleaming with a sudden grace
Through water, brilliant as the crystal vase
In which it undulates, small fishes shine,
Like golden ingots from a fairy mine;
While, on the other, latticed lightly in
With odoriferous woods of COMORIN,68
Each brilliant bird that wings the air is seen:
Gay, sparkling loories, such as gleam between
The crimson blossoms of the coral tree,
In the warm isles of India's sunny sea;
Mecca's blue sacred pigeon," and the thrush
Of Hindostan," whose holy warblings gush,
At evening, from the tall pagoda's top;
Those golden birds that, in the spice-time, drop
About the gardens, drunk with that sweet food 72. Whose scent hath lured them o'er the summer flood; 73
And those that under Araby's soft sun
Build their high nests of budding cinnamon : 74
In short, all rare and beauteous things that fly
Through the pure element, here calmly lie
Sleeping in light, like the green birds " that dwell In Eden's radiant fields of asphodel!
So on, through scenes past all imagining, More like the luxuries of that impious King,76 Whom Death's dark Angel, with his lightning torch, Struck down and blasted even in Pleasure's porch, Than the pure dwelling of a Prophet sent,
Armed with Heaven's sword, for man's enfranchise
Young AZIM wandered, looking sternly round,
His simple garb and war-boots' clanking sound
But ill according with the pomp and grace
And silent lull of that voluptuous place.
"Is this, then," thought the youth" is this the
"To free man's spirit from the deadening sway
"Of worldly sloth, to teach him while he lives,
"To know no bliss but that which virtue gives,
"And when he dies, to leave his lofty name
"A light, a landmark on the cliffs of fame?
"It was not so, Land of the generous thought
"And daring deed, thy godlike sages taught;
"It was not thus, in bowers of wanton ease,
"Thy freedom nursed her sacred energies;
"Oh! not beneath th' enfeebling, withering glow
"Of such dull luxury did those myrtles grow,
"With which she wreathed her sword, when she would dare
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