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An Arabian Eclogue Written in 1768
YE maids of Aden! hear a loftier tale | |
| Than e’er was sung in meadow, bower, or dale. | |
| The smiles of Abelah, and Maia’s eyes, | |
| Where beauty plays, and love in slumber lies; | |
| The fragrant hyacinths of Azza’s hair, | 5 |
| That wanton with the laughing summer-air; | |
| Love-tinctured cheeks, whence roses seek their bloom, | |
| And lips, from which the zephyr steals perfume,— | |
| Invite no more the wild unpolished lay, | |
| But fly like dreams before the morning ray. | 10 |
| Then farewell, love! and farewell, youthful fires! | |
| A nobler warmth my kindled breast inspires. | |
| Far bolder notes the listening wood shall fill: | |
| Flow smooth, ye rivulets; and, ye gales, be still. | |
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| See yon fair groves that o’er Amana rise, | 15 |
| And with their spicy breath embalm the skies; | |
| Where every breeze sheds incense o’er the vales, | |
| And every shrub the scent of musk exhales! | |
| See through yon opening glade a glittering scene, | |
| Lawns ever gay, and meadows ever green! | 20 |
| Then ask the groves, and ask the vocal bowers, | |
| Who decked their spiry tops with blooming flowers, | |
| Taught the blue stream o’er sandy vales to flow, | |
| And the brown wild with liveliest hues to glow? | |
| Fair Solima! the hills and dales will sing; | 25 |
| Fair Solima! the distant echoes ring. | |
| But not with idle shows of vain delight, | |
| To charm the soul or to beguile the sight; | |
| At noon on banks of pleasure to repose, | |
| Where bloom intwined the lily, pink, and rose; | 30 |
| Not in proud piles to heap the nightly feast, | |
| Till morn with pearls has decked the glowing east; | |
| Ah! not for this she taught those bowers to rise, | |
| And bade all Eden spring before our eyes: | |
| Far other thoughts her heavenly mind employ, | 35 |
| (Hence, empty pride! and hence, delusive joy!) | |
| To cheer with sweet repast the fainting guest; | |
| To lull the weary on the couch of rest; | |
| To warm the traveller numbed with winter’s cold; | |
| The young to cherish, to support the old; | 40 |
| The sad to comfort, and the weak protect; | |
| The poor to shelter, and the lost direct;— | |
| These are her cares, and this her glorious task: | |
| Can heaven a nobler give, or mortals ask? | |
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| Come to these groves and these life-breathing glades, | 45 |
| Ye friendless orphans and ye dowerless maids! | |
| With eager haste your mournful mansions leave, | |
| Ye weak, that tremble; and, ye sick, that grieve; | |
| Here shall soft tents, o’er flowery lawns displayed, | |
| At night defend you, and at noon o’ershade; | 50 |
| Here rosy health the sweets of life will shower, | |
| And new delights beguile each varied hour. | |
| Mourns there a widow, bathed in streaming tears? | |
| Stoops there a sire beneath the weight of years? | |
| Weeps there a maid, in pining sadness left, | 55 |
| Of tender parents and of hope bereft? | |
| To Solima their sorrows they bewail; | |
| To Solima they pour their plaintive tale. | |
| She hears; and, radiant as the star of day, | |
| Through the thick forest gains her easy way: | 60 |
| She asks what cares the joyless train oppress, | |
| What sickness wastes them, or what wants distress; | |
| And, as they mourn, she steals a tender sigh, | |
| Whilst all her soul sits melting in her eye: | |
| Then with a smile the healing balm bestows, | 65 |
| And sheds a tear of pity o’er their woes, | |
| Which, as it drops, some soft-eyed angel bears | |
| Transformed to pearl, and in his bosom wears. | |
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| When, chilled with fear, the trembling pilgrim roves | |
| Through pathless deserts and through tangled groves, | 70 |
| Where mantling darkness spreads her dragon wing, | |
| And birds of death their fatal dirges sing, | |
| While vapors pale a dreadful glimmering cast, | |
| And thrilling horror howls in every blast; | |
| She cheers his gloom with streams of bursting light, | 75 |
| By day a sun, a beaming moon by night; | |
| Darts through the quivering shades her heavenly ray, | |
| And spreads with rising flowers his solitary way. | |
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| Ye heavens, for this in showers of sweetness shed | |
| Your mildest influence o’er her favored head! | 80 |
| Long may her name, which distant climes shall praise, | |
| Live in our notes, and blossom in our lays! | |
| And, like an odorous plant, whose blushing flower | |
| Paints every dale, and sweetens every bower, | |
| Borne to the skies in clouds of soft perfume | 85 |
| Forever flourish, and forever bloom! | |
| These grateful songs, ye maids and youths, renew, | |
| While fresh-blown violets drink the pearly dew; | |
| O’er Azib’s banks while love-lorn damsels rove, | |
| And gales of fragrance breathe from Hagar’s grove. | 90 |
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| So sung the youth, whose sweetly warbled strains | |
| Fair Mena heard, and Saba’s spicy plains. | |
| Soothed with his lay, the ravished air was calm, | |
| The winds scarce whispered o’er the waving palm; | |
| The camels bounded o’er the flowery lawn, | 95 |
| Like the swift ostrich or the sportful fawn; | |
| Their silken bands the listening rosebuds rent, | |
| And twined their blossoms round his vocal tent: | |
| He sung, till on the bank the moonlight slept, | |
| And closing flowers beneath the night-dew wept; | 100 |
| Then ceased, and slumbered in the lap of rest | |
| Till the shrill lark had left his low-built nest. | |
| Now hastes the swain to tune his rapturous tales | |
| In other meadows, and in other vales. | |
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