If tenderness touch'd her, the dark of her eye From the depth of whose shadow, like holy revealings 4 In the wars of the Dives with the Peris, whenever the former took the latter prisoners, "they shut them up in iron cages, and hung them on the highest trees. Here they were visited by their companions, who brought them the choicest odours." Richardson. 5 In the Malay language the same word signifies women and flowers. Yet dim before her were the smiles of them all, But where is she now, this night of joy, When all around her is so bright, So like the visions of a trance, That one might think, who came by chance Into the vale this happy night, He saw that City of Delight 6 In Fairy-land, whose streets and towers Where is the lov'd Sultana? where, When mirth brings out the young and fair, Does she, the fairest, hide her brow, In melancholy stillness now? 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, The capital of Shadukiam. V. note, p. 160. Like ships, that have gone down at sea, A something, light as air — a look, Oh! love, that tempests never shook, A breath, a touch like this hath shaken. And ruder words will soon rush in To spread the breach that words begin; They wore in courtship's smiling day; 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; -7 Loose not a tie that round him clings, For ev'n an hour, a minute's flight Like that celestial bird, — whose nest Is found beneath far Eastern skies, Whose wings, though radiant when at rest, Some difference, of this dangerous kind, By which, though light, the links that bind The fondest hearts may soon be riven; Some shadow in love's summer heaven, Which, though a fleecy speck at first, 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! 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, In vain the loveliest cheeks and eyes This Eden of the earth supplies 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. |