Selected Poems (36 page)

Within that dome as yet Decay

Hath slowly work’d her cankering way –

But gloom is gather’d o’er the gate,

Nor there the Fakir’s self will wait;

340

Nor there will wandering Dervise stay,

For bounty cheers not his delay;

Nor there will weary stranger halt

To bless the sacred ‘bread and salt.’
¹

Alike must Wealth and Poverty

345

Pass heedless and unheeded by,

For Courtesy and Pity died

With Hassan on the mountain side.

His roof, that refuge unto men,

Is Desolation’s hungry den.

350

The guest flies the hall, and the vassal from labour,

Since his turban was cleft by the infidel’s sabre!
²

* * * * *

I hear the sound of coming feet,

But not a voice mine ear to greet;

More near – each turban I can scan,

355

And silver-sheathed ataghan;
³

The foremost of the band is seen

An Emir by his garb of green:
⁴

‘Ho! who art thou?’ – ‘This low salam
⁵

Replies of Moslem faith I am. ‘—

360

‘The burthen ye so gently bear

Seems one that claims your utmost care,

And, doubtless, holds some precious freight,

My humble bark would gladly wait.’

‘Thou speakest sooth: thy skiff unmoor,

365

And waft us from the silent shore;

Nay, leave the sail still furl’d, and ply

The nearest oar that’s scatter’d by,

And midway to those rocks where sleep

The channel’d waters dark and deep.

370

Rest from your task – so – bravely done,

Our course has been right swiftly run;

Yet ’tis the longest voyage, I trow,

That one of—

* * * * * * * *’

Sullen it plunged, and slowly sank,

375

The calm wave rippled to the bank;

I watch’d it as it sank, methought

Some motion from the current caught

Bestirr’d it more, – ‘twas but the beam

That checker’d o’er the living stream:

380

I gazed, till vanishing from view,

Like lessening pebble it withdrew;

Still less and less, a speck of white

That gemm’d the tide, then mock’d the sight;

And all its hidden secrets sleep,

385

Known but to Genii of the deep,

Which, trembling in their coral caves,

They dare not whisper to the waves.

* * * * *

As rising on its purple wing

The insect-queen
¹
of eastern spring,

390

O’er emerald meadows of Kashmeer

Invites the young pursuer near,

And leads him on from flower to flower

A weary chase and wasted hour,

Then leaves him, as it soars on high,

395

With panting heart and tearful eye:

So Beauty lures the full-grown child,

With hue as bright, and wing as wild;

A chase of idle hopes and fears,

Begun in folly, closed in tears.

400

If won, to equal ills betray’d,

Woe waits the insect and the maid;

A life of pain, the loss of peace,

From infant’s play, and man’s caprice:

The lovely toy so fiercely sought

405

Hath lost its charm by being caught,

For every touch that woo’d its stay

Hath brush’d its brightest hues away,

Till charm, and hue, and beauty gone,

‘Tis left to fly or fall alone.

410

With wounded wing, or bleeding breast,

Ah! where shall either victim rest?

Can this with faded pinion soar

From rose to tulip as before?

Or Beauty, blighted in an hour,

415

Find joy within her broken bower?

No: gayer insects fluttering by

Ne’er droop the wing o’er those that die,

And lovelier things have mercy shown

To every failing but their own,

420

And every woe a tear can claim

Except an erring sister’s shame.

* * * * *

The Mind, that broods o’er guilty woes,

Is like the Scorpion girt by fire,

In circle narrowing as it glows,

425

The flames around their captive close,

Till inly search’d by thousand throes,

And maddening in her ire,

One sad and sole relief she knows,

The sting she nourish’d for her foes,

430

Whose venom never yet was vain,

Gives but one pang, and cures all pain,

And darts into her desperate brain;

So do the dark in soul expire,

Or live like Scorpion girt by fire;
¹

435

So writhes the mind Remorse hath riven,

Unfit for earth, undoom’d for heaven,

Darkness above, despair beneath,

Around it flame, within it death!

* * * * *

Black Hassan from the Haram flies,

440

Nor bends on woman’s form his eyes;

The unwonted chase each hour employs,

Yet shares he not the hunter’s joys.

Not thus was Hassan wont to fly

When Leila dwelt in his Serai.

445

Doth Leila there no longer dwell?

That tale can only Hassan tell:

Strange rumours in our city say

Upon that eve she fled away

When Rhamazan’s
²
last sun was set,

450

And flashing from each minaret

Millions of lamps proclaim’d the feast

Of Bairam through the boundless East.

‘Twas then she went as to the bath,

Which Hassan vainly search’d in wrath;

455

For she was flown her master’s rage

In likeness of a Georgian page,

And far beyond the Moslem’s power

Had wrong’d him with the faithless Giaour.

Somewhat of this had Hassan deem’d;

460

But still so fond, so fair she seem’d,

Too well he trusted to the slave

Whose treachery deserved a grave:

And on that eve had gone to mosque,

And thence to feast in his kiosk.

465

Such is the tale his Nubians tell,

Who did not watch their charge too well;

But others say, that on that night,

By pale Phingari’s
¹
trembling light,

The Giaour upon his jet black steed

470

Was seen, but seen alone to speed

With bloody spur along the shore,

Nor maid nor page behind him bore.

* * * * *

Her eye’s dark charm ’t were vain to tell,

But gaze on that of the Gazelle,

475

It will assist thy fancy well;

As large, as languishingly dark,

But Soul beam’d forth in every spark

That darted from beneath the lid,

Bright as the jewel of Giamschid.
²

480

Yea,
Soul
, and should our prophet say

That form was nought but breathing clay,

By Alla! I would answer nay;

Though on Al-Sirat’s
³
arch I stood,

Which totters o’er the fiery flood,

485

With Paradise within my view,

And all his Houris beckoning through.

Oh! who young Leila’s glance could read

And keep that portion of his creed,

Which saith that woman is but dust,

490

A soulless toy for tyrant’s lust?
¹

On her might Muftis gaze, and own

That through her eye the Immortal shone;

On her fair cheek’s unfading hue

The young pomegranate’s
²
blossoms strew

495

Their bloom in blushes ever new;

Her hair in hyacynthine
³
flow,