And should my youth, as youth is apt I Beverage and food; they edged the shore. Bare without leaf or bough, erect and smooth, Their tresses nodding like a crested helm, The plumage of the grove. Will ye believe The wonders of the ocean? how its shoals And as when all the summer trees are Sprung from the wave, like flashing light, took wing, And rose like dust before the whirlwind's force. But we sail'd onward over tranquil seas, And sense, and pleasure. Not a cloud by day With purple islanded the dark-blue deep: By night the quiet billows heaved and glanced Under the moon, that heavenly moon ! so bright, That many a midnight have I paced the deck, Forgetful of the hours of due repose; works. No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain, Breaks the serene of heaven: In full orbed glory yonder moon divine Rolls through the dark blue depths: The desert-circle spreads, The earliest sunbeams haste to wing their way, With rainbow wreaths the holy stream adorning : And duly the adoring moon at night Sheds her white glory there, And in the watery air Suspends her halo-crowns of silver light. AN EASTERN EVENING. Like the round ocean, girdled with the EVENING comes on: arising from the THE SOURCE OF THE GANGES. NONE hath seen its secret fountain; In light and clouds, it hath its mortal birth. Earth seems that pinnacle to rear The mighty cataract rushes: heaven Like thunder, with the incessant roar resounding, And Meru's summit shaking with the sound. Wide spreads the snowy foam, the sparkling spray Dances aloft; and ever there at morning song, And solemn dance of festive multitude; Now as the weary ages pass along, Hearing no voice save of the ocean flood, Which roars for ever on the restless shores ; Or, visiting their solitary caves, The lonely sound of winds, that moan around Accordant to the melancholy waves. Wondering, he stood awhile to gaze Upon the works of elder days. The brazen portals open stood, Even as the fearful multitude Had left them, when they fled Before the rising flood. High over-head, sublime, The mighty gateway's storied roof was spread, Dwarfing the puny piles of younger time. With the deeds of days of yore That ample roof was sculptured o'er, And many a godlike form there met his eye, And many an emblem dark of mystery. Through these wide portals oft had Baly rode Triumphant from his proud abode, The Aullay-horse, that in his force, With elephantine trunk, could bind And lift the elephant, and on the wind Whirl him away, with sway and swing, Even like a pebble from the practised sling. Those streets which never, since the days of yore, By human footstep had been visited; The thousand palaces were seen Of that proud city whose superb abodes Seemed reared by giants for the immortal gods. How silent and how beautiful they stand, Like things of Nature! the eternal rocks Themselves not firmer. Neither hath the sand Drifted within their gates, and choaked their doors, Nor slime defiled their pavements and their floors. Did then the ocean wage So thought Ladurlad, as he looked For where the mighty Ocean could not around, Weening to hear the sound Of Mermaid's shell, and song Of choral throng from some imperial hall, Wherein the immortal powers, at festival, Their high carousals keep. Through many a solitary street, And silent market-place, and lonely A place of Paradise, where each device spare, There had he, with his own creation, Sought to repair his work of devasta tion. Yea, beautiful as Mermaid's golden Upon the waves dispread : Others that, like the broad bannana Raised their long wrinkled leaves of growing, purple hue, Like streamers wide out-flowing. And whatsoe'er the depths of Ocean [espied. From human eyes, Ladurlad there hide Of emulous art with nature strove to Trees of the deep, and shrubs and fruits vie ; And nature, on her part, Called forth new powers wherewith to vanquish art. The Swerga-God himself, with cnvious eye, Surveyed those peerless gardens in their prime; Nor ever did the Lord of Light, Who circles Earth and Heaven upon his way, [sight Behold from eldest time a goodlier Than were the groves which Baly, in his Made for his chosen place of solace and and flowers, As fair as ours. Wherewith the Sea-nymphs love their locks to braid, When to their father's hall, at festival Repairing, they, in emulous array, Their charms display, To grace the banquet, and the solemn day. THALABA'S HOME IN THE DESERT. might, delight. Thalaba. Even yet it was a place of Para dise: That, in a lonely tent, had cast The lot of Thalaba. L* Or when the winter torrent rolls Down the deep-channelled rain-course, foamingly, Dark with its mountain spoils, With bare feet pressing the wet sand, There wanders Thalaba, The rushing flow, the flowing roal, Gleaming o'er yellow sands? The tall canes bend above. Floating like streamers on the wind Nor rich, nor poor, was Moath; God had And goats that, morn and eve, Came with full udders to the damsel's hand. Dear child! the tent beneath whose shade they dwelt It was her work; and she had twined And he had seen his robe How often, with a memory-mingled joy Which made her mother live before his sight, He watched her nimble fingers thread the woof! [toiled, Or at the hand-mill, when she knelt and Toast the thin cake on spreading palm, Or fixed it on the glowing oven's side With bare wet arm, and safe dexterity. 'Tis the cool evening hour: The tamarind from the dew Sheathes its young fruit, yet green. Before their tent the mat is spread, The old man's awful voice Intone the holy book, |