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And think its steeps, though dark and dread,
Heav'n's path-ways, if to thee they led !
Ev'n now thou seest the flashing spray,
That lights his oar's impatient way;—
Ev'n now thou hear'st the sudden shock
Of his swift bark against the rock,
And stretchest down thy arms of snow,
As if to lift him from below!
Like her to whom, at dead of night,
The bridegroom, with his locks of light,
Came, in the flush of love and pride,
And scal'd the terrace of his bride;
When, as she saw him rashly spring,
And mid-way up in danger cling,

5

She flung him down her long black hair,
Exclaiming breathless,. "There, love, there!"
And scarce did manlier nerve uphold

The hero ZAL in that fond hour,

5 In one of the books of the Shâh Nâmeh, when Zal (a celebrated hero of Persia, remarkable for his white hair) comes to the terrace of his mistress Rodahver at night, she lets down her long tresses to assist him in his ascent; - he, however, manages it in a less romantic way by fixing his crook in a projecting beam. v. Champion's Ferdosi.

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Than wings the youth who fleet and bold
Now climbs the rocks to HINDA's bower.

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light as up their granite steeps

The rock-goats of ARABIA clamber, " Fearless from crag to crag he leaps,

And now is in the maiden's chamber.

She loves but knows not whom she loves,
Nor what his race, nor whence he came;
Like one who meets, in Indian groves,

Some beauteous bird, without a name,
Brought by the last ambrosial breeze,
From isles in the' undiscover'd seas,
To show his plumage for a day
To wondering eyes, and wing away!
Will he thus fly - her nameless lover?
Alla forbid ! 'twas by a moon

As fair as this, while singing over

Some ditty to her soft Kanoon, "

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7

6" On the lofty hills of Arabia Petræa are rock-goats."— Niebuhr, 7 Canun, espèce de psalterion, avec des cordes de boyaux; les dames en touchent dans le serrail, avec des décailles armées de pointes de coco." Toderini, translated by De Cournand.

Alone, at this same witching hour,
She first beheld his radiant eyes

Gleam through the lattice of the bower,

Where nightly now they mix their sighs;
And thought some spirit of the air
(For what could waft a mortal there?)

Was pausing on his moonlight way
To listen to her lonely lay!

This fancy ne'er hath left her mind:

And though, when terror's swoon had past,

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She saw a youth, of mortal kind,

Before her in obeisance cast,

Yet often since, when he hath spoken

Strange, awful words, and gleams have broken

From his dark eyes, too bright to bear,
Oh! she hath fear'd her soul was given

To some unhallow'd child of air,

Some erring Spirit, cast from heaven,
Like those angelic youths of old,
Who burn'd for maids of mortal mould,
Bewilder'd left the glorious skies,

And lost their heaven for woman's eyes!

Fond girl! nor fiend nor angel he,
Who woos thy young simplicity;
But one of earth's impassion'd sons,
As warm in love, as fierce in ire
As the best heart whose current runs
Full of the Day-God's living fire!

But quench'd to-night that ardour seems,
And pale his cheek, and sunk his brow; —

Never before, but in her dreams,

Had she beheld him pale as now:

And those were dreams of troubled sleep,
From which 'twas joy to wake and weep;
Visions, that will not be forgot,

But sadden every waking scene,

Like warning ghosts, that leave the spot
All wither'd where they once have been !

"How sweetly," said the trembling maid,
Of her own gentle voice afraid,
So long had they in silence stood,
Looking upon that tranquil flood-

"How sweetly does the moonbeam smile "To-night upon yon leafy isle!

"Oft, in my fancy's wanderings,

"I've wish'd that little isle had wings,
"And we, within its fairy bowers,
"Were wafted off to seas unknown,
"Where not a pulse should beat but ours,
"And we might live, love, die alone!
"Far from the cruel and the cold,

"Where the bright eyes of angels only
"Should come around us, to behold
"A paradise so pure and lonely!
"Would this be world enough for thee?"
Playful she turn'd, that he might see
The passing smile her cheek put on ;
But when she mark'd how mournfully

His eyes met hers, that smile was gone; And, bursting into heart-felt tears,

"Yes, yes," she cried, " my hourly fears,

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My dreams have boded all too right

"We part for ever part-to-night!

"I knew, I knew it could not last

" 'Twas bright, 'twas heavenly, but 'tis past!

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