Lips in whose rosy labyrinth, when she smil'd, The soul was lost; and blushes, swift and wild As are the momentary meteors sent
Across th' uncalm, but beauteous firmament.
And then her look!-oh! where's the heart so wise, Could unbewilder'd meet those matchless eyes? Quick, restless, strange, but exquisite withal, Like those of angels, just before their fall; Now shadow'd with the shames of earth By glimpses of the Heav'n her heart had lost; In every glance there broke, without controul, The flashes of a bright but troubled soul, Where sensibility still wildly play'd,
Like lightning, round the ruins it had made!
And such, was now young ZELICA—so chang'd From her who, some years since, delighted rang'd The almond groves, that shade BOKHARA's tide, All life and bliss, with Azim by her side! So alter'd was she now, this festal day, When, 'mid the proud Divan's dazzling array, The vision of that Youth, whom she had lov'd, And wept as dead, before her breath'd and mov'd; —
bright, she thought, as if from Eden's track But half-way trodden, he had wander'd back Again to earth, glistening with. Eden's lightHer beauteous AZIM shone before her sight.
Oh Reason! who shall say what spells renew, When least we look for it, thy broken clew! Through what small vistas o'er the darken'd brain Thy intellectual day-beam bursts again;
And how, like forts, to which beleaguerers win Unhop'd-for entrance through some friend within, One clear idea, wakened in the breast By memory's magic, lets in all the rest! Would it were thus, unhappy girl, with thee! But, though light came, it came but partially; Enough to show the maze, in which thy sense Wander'd about, but not to guide it thence; Enough to glimmer o'er the yawning wave, But not to point the harbour which might save. Hours of delight and peace, long left behind, With that dear form came rushing o'er her mind; But oh! to think how deep her soul had gone
In shame and falsehood since those moments shone;
there madness lay again,
And, shuddering, back she sunk into her chain Of mental darkness, as if blest to flee
From light, whose every glimpse was agony!
Yet, one relief this glance of former years
Brought, mingled with its pain, tears, floods of tears,
Long frozen at her heart, but now like rills
Let loose in spring-time from the snowy hills, And gushing warm, after a sleep of frost, Through valleys where their flow had long been lost!
Sad and subdued, for the first time her frame Trembled with horror, when the summons came, (A summons proud and rare, which all but she, And she, till now, had heard with extacy,) To meet MOKANNA at his place of prayer, A garden oratory, cool and fair,,
By the stream's side, where still at close of day The Prophet of the Veil retir'd to pray; Sometimes alone- but, oftener far, with one, One chosen nymph to share his orison.
Of late none found such favour in his sight As the young Priestess; and though, since that night
When the death-caverns echoed every tone
Of the dire oath that made her all his own,
Th' Impostor, sure of his infatuate prize,
Had, more than once, thrown off his soul's disguise, And utter'd such unheav'nly, monstrous things, As ev'n across the desperate wanderings
Of a weak intellect, whose lamp was out,
Threw startling shadows of dismay and doubt;--- Yet zeal, ambition, her tremendous vow,
The thought, still haunting her, of that bright brow Whose blaze, as yet from mortal eye conceal'd,
Would soon, proud triumph! be to her reveal'd,
To her alone; and then the hope, most dear,
Most wild of all, that her transgression here Was but a passage through earth's grosser fire, From which the spirit would at last aspire,
Ev'n purer than before, as perfumes rise
Through flame and smoke, most welcome to the skies
And that when AZIM's fond, divine embrace
Should circle her in heav'n, no darkening trace Would on that bosom he once lov'd remain,
But all be bright, be pure, be his again! —
These were the wildering dreams, whose curst deceit Had chain'd her soul beneath the tempter's feet, And made her think ev'n damning falsehood sweet. But now that Shape, which had appall'd her view, That Semblance-oh how terrible, if true! - Which came across her frenzy's full career With shock of consciousness, cold, deep, severe, As when, in northern seas, at midnight dark, An isle of ice encounters some swift bark, And, startling all its wretches from their sleep, By one cold impulse hurls them to the deep; So came that shock not frenzy's self could bear, And waking up each long-lull'd image there, But check❜d her headlong soul, to sink it in despair!
Wan and dejected, through the evening dusk, She now went slowly to that small kiosk, Where, pondering alone his impious schemes, MOKANNA waited her
Of the fair-ripening future's rich success, To heed the sorrow, pale and spiritless, That sat upon his victim's downcast brow, Or mark how slow her step, how alter'd now
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