As if the morn had wak'd, and then
Shut close her lids of light again.
And NOURMAHAL is up and trying
The wonders of her lute, whose strings-
Oh, bliss !—now murmur like the sighing
From that ambrosial Spirit's wings.
And then, her voice-'tis more than human— Never, till now, had it been given
To lips of any mortal woman
To utter notes so fresh from heaven; Sweet as the breath of angel sighs,
When angel sighs are most divine."Oh let it last till night," she cries, "And he is more than ever mine." And hourly she renews the lay,
So fearful lest its heavenly sweetness Should, ere the evening, fade away,—
For things so heavenly have such fleetness!
But, far from fading, it but grows
Richer, diviner as it flows;
Till rapt she dwells on every string,
And pours again each sound along,
Like echo, lost and languishing,
In love with her own wondrous song.
That evening, (trusting that his soul
Might be from haunting love releas'd
By mirth, by music, and the bowl,)
The' Imperial SELIM held a feast
In his magnificent Shalimar : 350.
In whose Saloons, when the first star
Of evening o'er the waters trembled,
The Valley's loveliest all assembled ;
All the bright creatures that, like dreams,
Glide through its foliage, and drink beams
Of beauty from its founts and streams;
And all those wandering minstrel-maids,
Who leave-how can they leave?—the shades
Of that dear Valley, and are found
Singing in Gardens of the South 352
Those songs, that ne'er so sweetly sound
As from a young Cashmerian's mouth.
There, too, the Haram's inmates smile ;-
Maids from the West, with sun-bright hair,
And from the Garden of the NILE,
Delicate as the roses there; 353
Daughters of Love from CYPRUS' rocks,
With Paphian diamonds in their locks;
Light PERI forms, such as there are
On the gold meads of CANDAHAR ;
And they, before whose sleepy eyes,
In their own bright Kathaian bowers, Sparkle such rainbow butterflies,
That they might fancy the rich flowers, That round them in the sun lay sighing, Had been by magic all set flying. 3
Everything young, everything fair
From East and West is blushing there,
Except-except-oh, NOURMAHAL !
Thou loveliest, dearest of them all,
The one whose smile shone out alone,
Amidst a world the only one;
Whose light, among so many lights,
Was like that star on starry nights,
The seaman singles from the sky,
To steer his bark for ever by !
Thou wert not there-so SELIM thought,
And everything seem'd drear without thee; But ah! thou wert, thou wert,--and brought Thy charm of song all fresh about thee. Mingling unnoticed with a band
Of lutanists from many a land,
And veil'd by such a mask as shades
The features of young Arab maids,357___
A mask that leaves but one eye free,
To do its best in witchery,—
She rov'd, with beating heart, around,
And waited, trembling, for the minute,
When she might try if still the sound
Of her lov'd lute had magic in it.
The board was spread with fruits and wine;
With grapes of gold, like those that shine
On CASBIN'S hills; 358-pomegranates full
Of melting sweetness, and the pears,
And sunniest apples 353 that CAUBUL
In all its thousand gardens 360 bears ;-
Plantains, the golden and the green,
MALAYA'S nectar'd mangusteen ; 361
Prunes of BOKARA, and sweet nuts
From the far groves of SAMARCAND,
And BASRA dates, and apricots,
Seed of the Sun,3
362 from IRAN'S land ;-
With rich conserve of Visna cherries,363
Of orange flowers, and of those berries
That, wild and fresh, the young gazelles
Feed on in ERAC's rocky dells, 364
All these in richest vases smile,
In baskets of pure santal-wood,
And urns of porcelain from that isle 365
Sunk underneath the Indian flood,
Whence oft the lucky diver brings
Vases to grace the halls of kings.
Wines, too, of every clime and hue,
Around their liquid lustre threw ;
Amber Rosolli,366 the bright dew
From vineyards of the Green-Sea gushing; 367
And SHIRAZ wine, that richly ran
As if that jewel, large and rare,
The ruby for which KUBLAI-KHAN
Offer'd a city's wealth,368 was blushing
Melted within the goblets there!
And amply SELIM quaffs of each,
And seems resolv'd the flood shall reach
His inward heart,- shedding around
A genial deluge, as they run,
That soon shall leave no spot undrown'd,
For Love to rest his wings upon.
He little knew how well the boy
Can float upon a goblet's streams, Lighting them with his smile of joy ;
As bards have seen him in their dreams, Down the blue GANGES laughing glide Upon a rosy lotus wreath, 369
Catching new lustre from the tide
That with his image shone beneath.
But what are cups, without the aid
Of song to speed them as they flow?
And see a lovely Georgian maid,
With all the bloom, the freshen'd glow
Of her own country maidens' looks,
When warm they rise from TEFLIS' brooks; 379
And with an eye, whose restless ray,
Full, floating, dark-oh, he, who knows
His heart is weak, of Heaven should pray
To guard him from such eyes as those !—
With a voluptuous wildness flings
Her snowy hand across the strings
Of a syrinda,371 and thus sings:-
Come hither, come hither-by night and by day,
We linger in pleasures that never are gone;
Like the waves of the summer, as one dies away,
Another as sweet and as shining comes on.
And the love that is o'er, in expiring, gives birth
To a new one as warm, as unequall'd in bliss ;
And, oh! if there be an Elysium on earth,
It is this, it is this.372
Here maidens are sighing, and fragrant their sigh
As the flower of the Amra just op'd by a bee; 373
And precious their tears as that rain from the sky,374
Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea.
Oh! think what the kiss and the smile must be worth
When the sigh and the tear are so perfect in bliss,
And own if there be an Elysium on earth,
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