"That I can live, and let thee go, "Who art my life itself?—No, no "When the stem dies, the leaf that grew "Out of its heart must perish too! "Then turn to me, my own love, túrn, "Before like thee I fade and burn; "Cling to these yet cool lips, and share "The last pure life that lingers there !” as dies the lamp She fails she sinks In charnel airs or cavern-damp, So quickly do his baleful sighs Quench all the sweet light of her eyes! One kiss the maiden gives, one last, Long kiss, which she expires in giving! "Sleep," said the PERI, as softly she stole The farewell sigh of that vanishing soul, As true as e'er warm'd a woman's breast "Sleep on, in visions of odour rest, "In balmier airs than ever yet stirr❜d "Th' enchanted pile of that lonely bird, "Who sings at the last his own death lay, ' "And in music and perfume dies away!" Thus saying, from her lips she spread From their dim graves, in odour sleeping; · While that benevolent PERI beam'd Like their good angel, calmly keeping Watch o'er them, till their souls would waken! But morn is blushing in the sky; Again the PERI soars above, Bearing to Heav'n that precious sigh Of pure, self-sacrificing love. In the East, they suppose the Phoenix to have fifty orifices in his bill, which are continued to his tail; and that, after living one thousand years, he builds himself a funeral pile, sings a melodious air of different harmonies through his fifty organ pipes, flaps his wings with a velocity which sets fire to the wood, and consumes himself." Richardson. High throbb'd her heart, with hope elate, Smil'd as she gave that offering in; And she already hears the trees Of Eden, with their crystal bells Ringing in that ambrosial breeze That from the Throne of ALLA Swells; And she can see the starry bowls That lie around that lucid lake, Upon whose banks admitted Souls Their first sweet draught of glory take !2 But ah! ev'n Peris' hopes are vain — The' immortal barrier clos'd-"not yet," The Angel said as, with regret, He shut from her that glimpse of glory "True was the maiden, and her story, 2 "On the shores of a quadrangular lake stand a thousand goblets, made of stars, out of which souls predestined to enjoy felicity drink the crystal wave." - From Chateaubriand's Description of the Mahometan Paradise, in his Beauties of Christianity. "Written in light o'er ALLA's head, 66 By seraph eyes shall long be read. "But, PERI, see-the crystal bar "Of Eden moves not holier far "Than ev❜n this sigh the boon must be Now, upon SYRIA's land of roses 3 Softly the light of Eve reposes, And, like a glory, the broad sun Hangs over sainted LEBANON; Whose head in wintry grandeur towers, To one, who look'd from upper air The life, the sparkling from below! 3 Richardson thinks that Syria had its name from Suri, a beautiful and delicate species of rose for which that country has been al ways famous; hence, Suristan, the Land of Roses. Fair gardens, shining streams, with ranks More golden where the sun-light falls; - As they were all alive with light;- With their rich restless wings, that gleam 1 With brilliants from the mine, or made Of tearless rainbows, such as span The' unclouded skies of PERISTAN ! And then, the mingling sounds that come, 4 "The number of lizards I saw one day in the great court of the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec, amounted to many thousands; the ground, the walls, and stones of the ruined buildings, were covered with them."- Bruce. 5 The Syrinx or Pan's pipe is still a pastoral instrument in Syria.-Russel. |