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(From The Curse of Kehama)
WHEN the broad ocean on Ladurlad’s head | |
| Had closed and arched him o’er, | |
| With steady tread he held his way | |
| Adown the sloping shore. | |
| The dark green waves with emerald hue | 5 |
| Imbue the beams of day, | |
| And on the wrinkled sand below, | |
| Rolling their mazy network to and fro, | |
| Light shadows shift and play. | |
| The hungry shark, at scent of prey, | 10 |
| Toward Ladurlad darted; | |
| Beholding then that human form erect, | |
| How like a god the depths he trod, | |
| Appalled the monster started, | |
| And in his fear departed. | 15 |
| Onward Ladurlad went with heart elate, | |
| And now hath reached the ancient city’s gate. | |
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| Wondering he stood awhile to gaze | |
| Upon the works of elder days. | |
| The brazen portals open stood, | 20 |
| Even as the fearful multitude | |
| Had left them, when they fled | |
| Before the rising flood. | |
| High overhead, sublime, | |
| The mighty gateway’s storied roof was spread, | 25 |
| Dwarfing the puny piles of younger time. | |
| With the deeds of days of yore | |
| That ample roof was sculptured o’er, | |
| And many a godlike form there met his eye, | |
| And many an emblem dark of mystery. | 30 |
| Through these wide portals oft had Baly rode | |
| Triumphant from his proud abode, | |
| When in his greatness he bestrode | |
| The Aullay, hugest of four-footed kind, | |
| The Aullay-Horse, that in his force, | 35 |
| With elephantine trunk, could bind | |
| And lift the elephant, and on the wind | |
| Whirl him away, with sway and swing, | |
| Even like a pebble from the practised sling. | |
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| Those streets which never, since the days of yore, | 40 |
| By human footstep had been visited, | |
| Those streets which nevermore | |
| A human foot shall tread, | |
| Ladurlad trod. In sunlight and sea-green, | |
| The thousand palaces were seen | 45 |
| Of that proud city, whose superb abodes | |
| Seemed reared by giants for the immortal gods. | |
| How silent and how beautiful they stand, | |
| Like things of Nature! the eternal rocks | |
| Themselves not firmer. Neither hath the sand | 50 |
| Drifted within their gates and choked their doors, | |
| Nor slime defiled their pavements and their floors. | |
| Did then the Ocean wage | |
| His war for love and envy, not in rage, | |
| O thou fair city, that he spared thee thus? | 55 |
| Art thou Varounin’s capital and court, | |
| Where all the sea-gods for delight resort, | |
| A place too godlike to be held by us, | |
| The poor degenerate children of the earth? | |
| So thought Ladurlad, as he looked around, | 60 |
| Weening to hear the sound | |
| Of mermaid’s shell, and song | |
| Of choral throng from some imperial hall, | |
| Wherein the immortal powers at festival | |
| Their high carousals keep; | 65 |
| But all is silence dread, | |
| Silence profound and dead, | |
| The everlasting stillness of the deep. | |
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