Sees, call'd up round her by these magic scents, Meanwhile, through vast illuminated halls, Silent and bright, where nothing but the falls Of fragrant waters, gushing with cool sound From many a jasper fount is heard around, Young AZIM roams bewilder'd, nor can guess What means this maze of light and loneliness. And spicy rods, such as illume at night The bowers of TIBET, send forth odorous light, 7 "Cloves are a principal ingredient in the composition of the perfumed rods, which men of rank keep constantly burning in their presence." Turner's Tibet. And here, at once, the glittering saloon Bursts on his sight, boundless and bright as nocn; Here too he traces the kind visitings Of land and wave, whose fate, in bondage thrown On one side gleaming with a sudden grace 8 8 C'est d'où vient le bois d'aloes, que les Arabes appellent Oud Comari, et celui du sandal, qui s'y trouve en grande quantité.D'Herbelot. Each brilliant bird that wings the air is seen; 2 Of Hindostan, whose holy warblings gush, Whose scent hath lur'd them o'er the summer flood; 3 9 "Thousands of variegated loories visit the coral-trees." Barrow. "In Mecca there are quantities of blue pigeons, which none will affright or abuse, much less kill." Pitt's Account of the Mahometans. 2" The Pagoda Thrush is esteemed among the first choristers of India. It sits perched on the sacred Pagodas, and from thence delivers its melodious song."— Pennant's Hindostan. 3 Birds of Paradise, which, at the nutmeg season, come in flights from the southern isles to India, and "the strength of the nutmeg," says Tavernier, so intoxicates them that they fall dead drunk to the earth." And those that under ARABY's soft sun Build their high nests of budding cinnamon ; — So on, through scenes past all imagining, More like the luxuries of that impious King," Whom Death's dark Angel, with his lightning torch, Arm'd with Heav'n's sword, for man's enfranchisement- pomp and grace And silent lull of that voluptuous place! 4 "That bird which liveth in Arabia, and buildeth its nest with cinnamon."- Brown's Vulgar Errors. 5 "The spirits of the martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green birds." - Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 421. 6 Shedad, who made the delicious gardens of Irim, in imitation of Paradise, and was destroyed by lightning the first time he attempted to enter them. "Is this then," thought the youth, "is this the way "To free man's spirit from the deadening sway "Of worldly sloth; - to teach him, while he lives, "To know no bliss but that which virtue gives, "And when he dies, to leave his lofty name "A light, a land-mark on the cliffs of fame? "It was not so, land of the generous thought “And daring deed! thy godlike sages taught; "It was not thus, in bowers of wanton ease, 66 Thy Freedom nurs'd her sacred energies; "Oh! not beneath th' enfeebling, withering glow "Of such dull luxury did those myrtles grow, "With which she wreath'd her sword, when she would "Etherial virtue, which alone can breathe "Life, health, and lustre into Freedom's wreath! |