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, Ah! 'twas not thus, And beating heart, with tearful eyes 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, 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 — No charm in trophies won with ease; Hath ever held that pearl the best Though high that tower, that rock-way rude, 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. Marco Polo. 4 This mountain is generally supposed to be inaccessible. And think its steeps, though dark and dread, She flung him down her long black hair, 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 See light as up their granite steeps 6 The rock-goats of ARABIA clamber, " Fearless from crag to crag he leaps, And now is in the maiden's chamber. She loves but knows not whom she loves, Some beauteous bird, without a name, Brought by the last ambrosial breeze, 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. ' 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. Alone, at this same witching hour, Gleam through the lattice of the bower, (For what could waft a mortal there ?) This fancy ne'er hath left her mind : And though, when terror's swoon had past, She saw a youth, of mortal kind, Before her in obeisance cast, Yet often since, when he hath spoken Strange, awful words, -and gleams have broken From his dark eyes, too bright to bear, To some unhallow'd child of air, Some erring Spirit, cast from heaven, Who burn'd for maids of mortal mould, And lost their heaven for woman's eyes! |