Yet dim before her were the smiles of them all, And the Light of his Haram was young NOURMAHAL ! But where is she now, this night of joy, So like the visions of a trance, That one might think, who came by chance He saw that City of Delight" In Fairy-land, whose streets and towers When mirth brings out the young and fair, Alas-how light a cause may move Dissension between hearts that love! Hearts that the world in vain had tried, And sorrow but more closely tied; That stood the storm, when waves were rough, Yet in a sunny hour fall off, 6 The capital of Shadukiam. v. note, p. 160. Like ships, that have gone down at sea, A something, light as air - a look, A breath, a touch like this hath shaken. 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, .. As in the Fields of Bliss above He sits, with flowrets fetter'd round;' Is found beneath far Eastern skies,Whose wings, though radiant when at rest, Lose all their glory when he flies ! 8 Some difference, of this dangerous kind, — 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. - 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 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 This Eden of the earth supplies eyes 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, If there his darling rose is not?1 9 "As these birds on the Bosphorus are never known to rest, they are called by the French 'les ames damnées."" - Dalloway, 1 "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, Yet never saw her blooming brow Nay, rather, as the west-wind's sigh Time's wing but seem'd, in stealing o'er, 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, |