High as the' enamell'd cupola, which towers Here too he traces the kind visitings Of woman's love in those fair, living things Of land and wave, whose fate-in bondage thrown For their weak loveliness-is like her own! On one side gleaming with a sudden grace Through water, brilliant as the crystal vase In which it undulates, small fishes shine, In the warm Isles of India's sunny sea : Build their high nests of budding cinnamon : 74 So on, through scenes past all imagining, Arm'd with Heaven's sword, for man's enfranchisement Young AZIM wander'd, looking sternly round, 73 "Is this, then," thought the youth, "is this the way "To free man's spirit from the dead'ning 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 landmark 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 the' enfeebling, withering glow "Of such dull luxury did those myrtles grow, "With which she wreath'd her sword, when she would dare "Immortal deeds; but in the bracing air "Of toil,-of temperance,-of that high, rare, This speck of life in time's great wilderness, "This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless seas, "Its rights from Heaven, should thus profane its cause With the world's vulgar pomp ;-no, no,—I see— "He thinks me weak--this glare of luxury "Is but to tempt, to try the eaglet gaze "Of my young soul-shine on, 'twill stand the blaze!' So thought the youth ;-but, ev'n while he defied This witching scene, he felt its witchery glide Through ev'ry sense. The perfume breathing round, Like a pervading spirit ;-the still sound. Of falling waters, lulling as the song Of Indian bees at sunset, when they throng Around the fragrant NILICA, and deep 77 In its blue blossoms hum themselves to sleep; They sat and look'd into each other's eyes, "Oh, my lov'd mistress, thou, whose spirit still "Is with me, round me, wander where I will"It is for thee, for thee alone I seek "The paths of glory; to light up thy cheek "With warm approval-in that gentle look "To read my praise, as in an angel's book, H "And think all toils rewarded, when from thee "I gain a smile worth immortality! "How shall I bear the moment when restor'd "To that young heart where I alone am Lord, "When from those lips, unbreath'd upon for years, “And find those tears warm as when last they started, "Those sacred kisses pure as when we parted? "O my own life !-why should a single day, While thus he thinks, still nearer on the breeze Come those delicious, dream-like harmonies, Each note of which but adds new, downy links To the soft chain in which his spirit sinks. He turns him tow'rd the sound, and far away Through a long vista, sparkling with the play Of countless lamps,--like the rich track which Day Leaves on the waters, when he sinks from us, So long the path, its light so tremulous ;He sees a group of female forms advance, Some chain'd together in the mazy dance By fetters, forged in the green sunny bowers, As they were captives to the King of Flowers; 78 And some disporting round, unlink'd and free, Who seem'd to mock their sisters' slavery; And round and round them still, in wheeling flight, Went, like gay moths about a lamp at night; While others walk'd, as gracefully along Their feet kept time, the very soul of song, |