Then fly with me, - if thou hast known No other flame, nor falsely thrown Come, if the love thou hast for me But if for me thou dost forsake Then, fare thee well - I'd rather make When thawing suns begin to shine, Than trust to love so false as thine! 9 The Hudhud, or Lapwing, is supposed to have the power of discovering water under ground. There was a pathos in this lay, That, ev'n without enchantment's art, But breathing, as it did, a tone Of Music's Spirit, 'twas too much! As if 'twere fix'd by magic there, — "Hadst thou but sung this witching strain, "I could forget forgive thee all, "And never leave those eyes again." The mask is off-the charm is wrought- His NOURMAHAL, his Haram's Light! And well do vanish'd frowns enhance And, happier now for all her sighs, "Remember, love, the Feast of Roses!" FADLADEEN, at the conclusion of this light rhapsody, took occasion to sum up his opinion of the young Cashmerian's poetry, of which, he trusted, they had that evening heard the last. Having recapitulated the epithets, "frivolous" - "inharmonious"-"nonsensical," he proceeded to say that, viewing it in the most favourable light, it resembled one of those Maldivian boats, to which the Princess had alluded in the relation of her dream, a slight, gilded thing, sent adrift without rudder or ballast, and with nothing but vapid sweets and faded flowers on board. The profusion, indeed, of flowers and birds, which this poet had ready on all occasions, not to mention dews, gems, &c. was a most oppressive kind of opulence to his hearers; and had the unlucky effect of giving to his style all the glitter of the flower-garden without its method, and all the flutter of the aviary without its song. In addition to this, he chose his subjects badly, and was always most inspired by the worst parts of them. The charms of paganism, the merits of re IV. page 223. bellion, these were the themes honoured with his particular enthusiasm; and, in the poem just recited, one of his most palatable passages was in praise of that beverage of the Unfaithful, wine; "being, perhaps," said he, relaxing into a smile, as conscious of his own character in the Haram on this point," one of those bards, whose fancy owes all its illumination to the grape, like that painted porcelain, so curious and so rare, whose images are only visible when liquor is poured into it." Upon the whole it was his opinion, from the specimens which they had heard, and which, he begged to say, were the most tiresome part of the journey, that whatever other merits this well-dressed young gentleman might possess-poetry was by no means his proper avocation: “and indeed," concluded the critic, "from his fondness for flowers and for birds, I would venture to suggest that a florist or a bird-catcher is a much more suitable calling for him than a poet." They had now begun to ascend those barren mountains, which separate Cashmere from the rest of India; and, as the heats were intolerable, and the time of their encampments limited to the few hours necessary for refreshment and repose, there was an end to Ꮓ |