"When the stem dies, the leaf that grew

"Out of its heart must perish too!
"Then turn to me, my own love, turn,
"Before like thee I fade and burn;

66

Cling to these yet cool lips, and share "The last pure life that lingers there !"

She fails she sinks as dies the lamp

In charnel airs or cavern-damp,

So quickly do his baleful sighs

Quench all the sweet light of her eyes!
One struggle and his pain is past
Her lover is no longer living!
One kiss the maiden gives, one last,
Long kiss, which she expires in giving!

"Sleep," said the PERI, as softly she stole The farewell sigh of that vanishing soul, As true as e'er warm'd a woman's breast "Sleep on, in visions of odour rest, "In balmier airs than ever yet stirr'd "Th' enchanted pile of that holy bird,

"Who sings at the last his own death lay, ' "And in music and perfume dies away!"

1

Thus saying, from her lips she spread
Unearthly breathings through the place,
And shook her sparkling wreath, and shed
Such lustre o'er each paly face,
That like two lovely saints they seem'd
Upon the eve of dooms-day taken

From their dim graves, in odour sleeping;
While that benevolent PERI beam'd

Like their good angel, calmly keeping

Watch o'er them, till their souls would waken!

But morn is blushing in the sky;

Again the PERI soars above,

Bearing to Heav'n that precious sigh

Of pure, self-sacrificing love.

'In the East, they suppose the Phoenix to have fifty orifices in his bill, which are continued to his tail; and that, after living one thousand years, he builds himself a funeral pile, sings a melodious air of different harmonies through his fifty organ pipes, flaps his wings with a velocity which sets fire to the wood, and consumes himself." - Richardson.

High throbb'd her heart, with hope elate,

The Elysian palm she soon shall win, For the bright Spirit at the gate

Smil❜d as she gave that offering in ;

And she already hears the trees

Of Eden, with their crystal bells

Ringing in that ambrosial breeze

That from the Throne of ALLA Swells;

And she can see the starry bowls

That lie around that lucid lake,

Upon whose banks admitted Souls

Their first sweet draught of glory take !2

But ah! ev'n Peris' hopes are vain

Again the Fates forbade, again

The' immortal barrier clos'd-"not yet,"

The Angel said as, with regret,

He shut from her that glimpse of glory

"True was the maiden, and her story,

2 " On the shores of a quadrangular lake stand a thousand goblets, made of stars, out of which souls predestined to enjoy felicity drink the crystal wave.” — From Chateaubriand's Description of the Mahometan Paradise, in his Beauties of Christianity.

"Written in light o'er ALLA's head, "By seraph eyes shall long be read. "But, PERI, see the crystal bar "Of Eden moves not holier far

"Than ev❜n this sigh the boon must be
"That opes the Gates of Heav'n for thee."

Now, upon SYRIA's land of roses

Softly the light of Eve reposes,

And, like a glory, the broad sun

Hangs over sainted LEBANON ;

Whose head in wintry grandeur towers,
And whitens with eternal sleet,
While summer, in a vale of flowers,
Is sleeping rosy at his feet.

To one, who look'd from upper air
O'er all the' enchanted regions there,

How beauteous must have been the glow,
The life, the sparkling from below!

3 Richardson thinks that Syria had its name from Suri, a beautiful and delicate species of rose for which that country has been always famous; hence, Suristan, the Land of Roses.

Fair gardens, shining streams, with ranks
Of golden melons on their banks,

More golden where the sun-light falls;-
Gay lizards, glittering on the walls *
Of ruin'd shrines, busy and bright

As they were all alive with light; -
And, yet more splendid, numerous flocks
Of pigeons, settling on the rocks,

With their rich restless wings, that gleam
Variously in the crimson beam

With brilliants from the mine, or made

Of tearless rainbows, such as span

The' unclouded skies of PERISTAN !
And then, the mingling sounds that come,
Of shepherd's ancient reed, with hum

4 "The number of lizards I saw one day in the great court of the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec, amounted to many thousands; the ground, the walls, and stones of the ruined buildings, were covered with them."-Bruce.

5 The Syrinx or Pan's pipe is still a pastoral instrument in Syria.- Russel.