Yet did the maids and matrons leave Their veils at home, that brilliant eve; And all exclaim'd to all they met That never did the summer bring The moon had never shed a light So clear as that which bless'd them there; The roses ne'er shone half so bright, Nor they themselves look'd half so fair. And what a wilderness of flowers! It seem'd as though from all the bowers With the rich buds that o'er it lie, As if a shower of fairy wreaths And then the sounds of joy, the beat The minaret-cryer's chaunt of glee Sung from his lighted gallery,' And answer'd by a ziraleet From neighbouring Haram, wild and sweet; The merry laughter, echoing From gardens, where the silken swing Wafts some delighted girl above The top leaves of the orange grove; Handfuls of roses at each other!. And the sounds from the Lake,—the low whisp'ring in boats, As they shoot through the moonlight;- the dipping of oars, And the wild, airy warbling that every where floats, Through the groves, round the islands, as if all the shores 9 "It is the custom among the women to employ the Maazeen to chaunt from the gallery of the nearest minaret, which on that occasion is illuminated, and the women assembled at the house respond at intervals with a ziraleet or joyous chorus." Russell. "At the keeping of the Feast of Roses we beheld an infinite number of tents pitched, with such a crowd of men, women, boys and girls, with music, dances," &c. &c.. Herbert. Like those of KATHAY utter'd music, and gave But the gentlest of all are those sounds, full of feeling, That soft from the lute of some lover are stealing,— Some lover, who knows all the heart-touching power Of a lute and a sigh in this magical hour. Oh! best of delights as it every where is To be near the lov'd One,- what a rapture is his, So felt the magnificent Son of ACBAR, 3 When from power and pomp and the trophies of war With the Light of the Haram, his young NOURMAHAL. 2 ❝ An old commentator of the Chou-King says, the ancients having remarked that a current of water made some of the stones near its banks send forth a sound, they detached some of them, and being charmed with the delightful sound they emitted, constructed King or musical instruments of them.". Grosier. 3 Jehanguire was the son of the Great Acbar. He saw, in the wreaths she would playfully snatch From the hedges, a glory his crown could not match, And preferr❜d in his heart the least ringlet that curl'd Down her exquisite neck to the throne of the world ! There's a beauty, for ever unchangingly bright, That charm of all others, was born with her face; The short, passing anger but seem'd to awaken New beauty, like flow'rs that are sweetest when shaken. If tenderness touch'd her, the dark of her eye From the depth of whose shadow, like holy revealings 4 In the wars of the Dives with the Peris, whenever the former took the latter prisoners," they shut them up in iron cages, and hung them on the highest trees. Here they were visited by their companions, who brought them the choicest odours."- Richardson. 5 In the Malay language the same word signifies women and flowers. |