And answer'd by a ziraleet From neighbouring Haram, wild and sweet; The merry laughter, echoing From gardens, where the silken swing * Then, the sounds from the Lake, the low whispering in boats. As they shoot through the moonlight; - the dipping of oars, And the wild, airy warbling that every where floats, Through the groves, round the islands, as if all the shores, Like those of KATHAY, utter'd music, and gave * "The swing is a favourite pastime in the East, as promoting a circulation of air, extremely refreshing in those sultry climates." —) RICHARDSON. "The swings are adorned with festoons. This pastime is accompanied with music of voices and of instruments, hired by the masters of the swings." — THEVENOT. "At the keeping of the Feast of Roses we beheld an infinite number of tents pitched, with such a crowd of men, women, boys, and girls, with music, dances." &c. &c.-HERBERT. "An old commentator of the Chou-King says, the ancients having remarked that a current of water made some of the stones near its banks send forth a sound, they detached some of them, and being charmed with the delightful sound they emitted, constructed King or musical instruments of them."— GROSIER. But the gentlest of all are those sounds, full of feeling, what a rapture is his Who in moonlight and music thus sweetly may glide O'er the Lake of CASHMERE, with that One by his side! If woman can make the worst wilderness dear, Think, think what a Heav'n she must make of CASHMERE! So felt the magnificent Son of ACBAR, * When from power and pomp and the trophies of war With the Light of the HARAM, his young NOURMAHAL. There's a beauty, for ever unchangingly bright, This miraculous quality has been attributed also to the shore of Attica. "Hujus littus, ait Capella, concentum musicum illisis terræ undis reddere, quod prop. ter tantam eruditionis vim puto dictum."- LUDOV. VIVES in Augustin de Civitat. Dei, lib. xviii. c. 8. * Jehanguire was the son of the Great Acbar. This was not the beauty-oh, nothing like this, That charm of all others, was born with her face! From the depth of whose shadow, like holy revealings Yet playful as Peris just loos'd from their cages. * * 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. Like any fair lake that the breeze is upon, But where is she now, this night of joy, So like a vision of a trance, That one might think, who came by chance He saw that City of Delight f In Fairy-land, whose streets and towers When mirth brings out the young and fair, Alas!-how light a cause may move Dissension between hearts that love! * In the Malay language the same word signifies women and flowers. † The capital of Shadukiam. See note, p. 133. Hearts that the world in vain had tried, That stood the storm, when waves were rough, Like ships that have gone down at sea, A breath, a touch like this hath shaken. That smiling left the mountain's brow As though its waters ne'er could sever, Oh, you, that have the charge of Love, As in the Fields of Bliss above He sits, with flow'rets fetter'd round; *See the representation of the Eastern Cupid, pinioned closely round with wreaths of flowers, in Picart's Ceremonies Religieuses. |