From psaltery, pipe, and lutes of heavenly thrill,
Or their own youthful voices, heavenlier still.
And now they come, now pass before his eye,
Forms such as Nature moulds, when she would vie
With Fancy's pencil, and give birth to things
Lovely beyond its fairest picturings.
Awhile they dance before him, then divide,
Breaking, like rosy clouds at even-tide
Around the rich pavilion of the sun,
Till silently dispersing, one by one,

Through many a path, that from the chamber leads
To gardens, terraces, and moonlight meads,
Their distant laughter comes upon the wind,
And but one trembling nymph remains behind,
Beck'ning them back in vain, for they are gone,
And she is left in all that light alone;
No veil to curtain o'er her beauteous brow,
In its young bashfulness more beauteous now;
But a light golden chain-work round her hair,*
Such as the maids of YEZD† and SHIRAS wear,
From which, on either side, gracefully hung
A golden amulet, in the' Arab tongue,

* "One of the head-dresses of the Persian women is composed of a light golden chain-work, set with small pearls, with a thin gold plate pendant, about the bigness of a crown-piece, on which is impressed an Arabian prayer, and which hangs upon the cheek below the ear. - HANWAY'S Travels.

"Certainly the women of Yezd are the handsomest women in Persia. The proverb is, that to live happy a man must have a wife of Yezd, eat the bread of Yezdecas, and drink the wine of Shiraz.”TAVERNIER.

Engraven o'er with some immortal line
From Holy Writ, or bard scarce less divine;
While her left hand, as shrinkingly she stood,
Held a small lute of gold and sandal-wood,

Which, once or twice, she touch'd with hurried strain,
Then took her trembling fingers off again.

But when at length a timid glance she stole

At AZIM, the sweet gravity of soul

She saw through all his features calm'd her fear,

And, like a half-tam'd antelope, more near,

Though shrinking still, she came; - then sat her down Upon a musnud's edge, and, bolder grown,

In the pathetic mode of ISFAHAN †

Touch'd a preluding strain, and thus began :

There's a bower of roses by BENDEMEER'S ‡ stream, And the nightingale sings round it all the day long; In the time of my childhood 'twas like a sweet dream, To sit in the roses and hear the bird's song.

That bower and its music I never forget,

But oft when alone, in the bloom of the year,

I think is the nightingale singing there yet?

Are the roses still bright by the calm BENDEMEER?

* Musnuds are cushioned seats, usually reserved for persons of distinction.

The Persians, like the ancient Greeks, call their musical modes or Perdas by the names of different countries or cities, as the mode of Isfahan, the mode of Irak, &c.

A river which flows near the ruins of Chilminar.

No, the roses soon wither'd that hung o'er the wave,
But some blossoms were gather'd, while freshly they

shone,

And a dew was distill'd from their flowers, that gave All the fragrance of summer, when summer was gone.

Thus memory draws from delight, ere it dies,

An essence that breathes of it many a year; Thus bright to my soul, as 'twas then to my eyes,

Is that bower on the banks of the calm BENDEMEER!

"Poor maiden!" thought the youth, "if thou wert

sent,

"With thy soft lute and beauty's blandishment,

"To wake unholy wishes in this heart,

"Or tempt its truth, thou little know'st the art.
"For though thy lip should sweetly counsel wrong,
"Those vestal eyes would disavow its song.
"But thou hast breath'd such purity, thy lay
"Returns so fondly to youth's virtuous day,

"And leads thy soul- if e'er it wander'd thence

"So gently back to its first innocence,

"That I would sooner stop the unchained dove, "When swift returning to its home of love,

"And round its snowy wing new fetters twine,

"Than turn from virtue one pure wish of thine!"

Scarce had this feeling pass'd, when, sparkling through

The gently open'd curtains of light blue

That veil'd the breezy casement, countless eyes,
Peeping like stars through the blue evening skies,

Look'd laughing in, as if to mock the pair
That sat so still and melancholy there :
And now the curtains fly apart, and in
From the cool air, 'mid showers of jessamine
Which those without fling after them in play,
Two lightsome maidens spring, lightsome as they
Who live in the' air on odours, — and around

--

The bright saloon, scarce conscious of the ground,
Chase one another, in a varying dance
Of mirth and languor, coyness and advance,
Too eloquently like love's warm pursuit :-
While she, who sung so gently to the lute
Her dream of home, steals timidly away,
Shrinking as violets do in summer's ray,
But takes with her from AZIM's heart that sigh
We sometimes give to forms that pass us by
In the world's crowd, too lovely to remain,
Creatures of light we never see again

Around the white necks of the nymphs who danc'd Hung carcanets of orient gems, that glanc'd More brilliant than the sea-glass glittering o'er The hills of crystal on the Caspian shore ; * While from their long, dark tresses, in a fall Of curls descending, bells as musical

*To the north of us (on the coast of the Caspian, near Badku,) was a mountain, which sparkled like diamonds, arising from the seaglass and crystals with which it abounds."— Journey of the Russian Ambassador to Persia, 1746.

As those that, on the golden-shafted trees
Of EDEN, shake in the eternal breeze,*

Rung round their steps, at every bound more sweet,
As 't were the' extatic language of their feet.

At length the chase was o'er, and they stood wreath'd
Within each other's arms; while soft there breath'd
Through the cool casement, mingled with the sighs
Of moonlight flowers, music that seem'd to rise
From some still lake, so liquidly it rose;
And, as it swell'd again at each faint close,

The ear could track through all that maze of chords
And young sweet voices, these impassion'd words :-

A SPIRIT there is, whose fragrant sigh
Is burning now through earth and air;
Where cheeks are blushing, the Spirit is nigh,
Where lips are meeting, the Spirit is there!

His breath is the soul of flowers like these,
And his floating eyes-oh! they resemble t
Blue water-lilies, when the breeze

Is making the stream around them tremble.

*To which will be added the sound of the bells, hanging on the trees, which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne of God, as often as the blessed wish for music." - SALE.

"Whose wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies, agitated by the

The blue lotos, which grows in Cashmere and in Persia.