VOLUPTUOUS hours yield visions of delight That throb with glory, as from purple night The golden planets glimmer down the hush O'er breathless trees, where, save the warbled crush Of the dove's love-lay wooing its warm mate, Dumb stillness reigns alone disconsolate.
So silent rapture and serene repose,
'Mid radiant pomp that gladdens while it glows, Lap in Elysian reveries the soul
That broods in revel o'er the creaming bowl. Yet all such evanescent joys evade
The grasp of Hope: like garden blooms that fade When cropp'd to decorate some ringlet's coil, Not growing greenly from the fresh'ning soil; In garlands bound, to blossom and decay, Their frail tints withering in wealth's array.
Thus dream-encircled on his couch of pride Shaldazzar sate-a virgin by his side- While song and laughter shook the lordly hall Where mirth foam'd up as when some waterfall Descends all flashing from its sedgy brink To drench with spray the verdure from the chink Of marl purpureal budding to the light, Where beam and dew in rainbow dyes unite. Above the festal throng refulgent gleamed- What time between columnar marble streamed From summer's crescent moon the yellow shine That kissed with shimmer'd rays the dimpling wine, Such rainbow fancies soothing strange alarms, And grief assuaging with redundant charms. Sweet images of memory were there, Dear phantasies most delicate and fair, Imparting solace in ideal guise
To him, the Prince of Orient luxuries. Incongruous beauties, blent by warmth of mind, Harmonious graces in his form combined- A soul all prowess, with a heart all ruth; The beard of manhood, with the bloom of youth; Ambrosial clusters down his shoulders rolled, In brownest shadows, streaked with gloss of gold; Celestial features, where contending played The earthly passions every glance betrayed; And sensuous lips with honeyed smiles replete, Yet strung with nerves defiant of defeat; And dreamful eyes, where angels might revere Love's melting gloom and Wisdom's light austere. Around, on roaring wings, the banquet flew, While still from musing depths Shaldazzar drew
Divine emotions. O'er his brow no gem Flamed out from spoil-encrusted diadem; But, wov'n all fragrant in a chaplet rare, Lurked milk-white violets in his tawny hair,
Where beamed through tender leaves the flush that flows From vermeil bosses of the new-blown rose:
Beneath whose shade he dreamed a golden dream, Where Fancy ruled with wond'rous wand supreme; Where strayed his wistful gaze through trembling tears Along the flowery wastes of vanished years; Where dawned the Future like a jocund morn, Suffused with hinted splendours yet unborn: A dream of regions where the Spirit trod The sinless garden of the realms of God. So rapt each sense-to voiceful thoughts alone His sentience hearken'd from its secret throne; Nor saw, nor felt, with drowsing calm o'erjoyed, The jewell'd cup his fingers idly toyed: While o'er his limbs the regal tissue seen Of darkest ruby shot with silver sheen, Enswathed his breast like fluctuating flame,
That blushed or sparkled as his breathing came.
'Arise, thou Past!" within his heart he cried:
"We come," remembered Hours responsive sighed : And, lo! as forth the stellar pageant floats, As down the sunbeam swarm the gilded motes, Beloved phantoms, calm, he viewed repass O'er Memory's disc-weird Fancy's magic glass. Again his childhood laughed in roseate prime 'Mid humbler scenes and 'neath a colder clime; Again his stripling form betrayed in throes The haggard signs of adolescent woes, When, worn by vigils in his northern home, To heights sublime his young ambition clomb; Again, again, while o'er that silent toil In lamp replenished burnt the flickering oil, He watched the grey dawn under glimmering eaves Steal through the lattice-maze the jasmine weaves, Imbue with saffron tinge the pendent rain That dripped from wheaten thatch like liquid grain, And streak with ruddy dyes whose depth increased The tremulous glories of the dappled east. Triumphant years fled onwards, and the strife Of manhood bickered round the dreamer's life, Obscure but dauntless ev'n when next beheld In student garb, o'er scattered lands impelled; Adventurous still in stubborn quest of fame- A wandering Saxon with a Persian name. Shaldazzar marvelled as, with visage stern Yet sad, he viewed his former self return, And tracked his steps where'er their print might rove, Through oral porch, and academic grove;
Through Arctic snows where frozen winds were dumb; Through orchards laden with the Servian plum; 'Mid bowers of Cyprus starred with citron blooms, Rhodes' squalid hearths, and Corinth's stately tombs; O'er trailing tangles of Italia's vine;
O'er billowing crests of blue Ægean brine;
And toiling on, unvanquished and alone, While hope's last halo round th' aspirant shone, He sought the mystic lore by sinuous ways, By rills soft purling where the noontide blaze With dubious twilight filled the forest shades; In populous cities, and sequestered glades; Till, grappling knowledge girt with pangs divine, A conquering Prince he paused in Palestine. "O joy!" the Watcher sighed, with reverie's sweet Unsyllabled emotion, "joy complete!
When precious fruits beyond all thought's compare, Though guarded by grim dragons of despair, These hands emaciate 'reft from holier trees Than showered with greening-gold the Hesperides- While, born 'mid purging flames, from bubbled dross, Dread rose the glamour of the Rosy Cross! Immortal health, reviving on the verge
Of death, shone glorified. Woe's sullen dirge Gave change to vital music such as thrills The pulses of our being, such as fills
The veins with vinous pleasure, such as stirs The bosom with the glory Life confers. But not alone perennial strength was mine, Unfading youth, and beauty half divine; The barren staff of poverty spread leaf And burgeoned into blossoms; from the grief Of ruin and privation proudly rolled
The joy of boundless sway and wealth untold- While mellowing ripe within my grasp were grown The Grand Elixir and the Golden Stone.
'Twas summer near Idumea, and the gush Of fountains babbled in noon's sultry flush, And silver tinkles 'neath the drowsing shade,
Where, lapped in ease, earth's slumbering lords were laid, Proclaimed the cooling sense the winnowed air, From fans revolving, blew through jewelled hair; Along the marble floors with flickering gleam, As shapes reflective in a rippled stream,
Fantastic shadows played where light did glance
Without, through linden boughs in glittering dance,
Within, through painted screens, where, strewn around,
All gorgeous colours variegate the ground; Heat hushed the sky, and mid-day sleep the land,
When flashed from sorrow's sheath power's flaming brand!
"An interval of passionate delight,
And Fame broke shell, unfurling wings for flight; And warrior hosts around my fortunes thronged, Whose quick allegiance direst oaths prolonged; And shrill the trumpets woke their brazen voice; And bright the dawn bade glinting arms rejoice; And fresh the breeze through silken banners sang; Loud rolled the drums, the clashing cymbals rang; And twinkling spears, and blazing helms enhanced The pomp of war that down the dells advanced. Through thickets green, and o'er the fertile plain, In dim perspective, stretched the sinuous train. Hours died in roving 'mid Judæan hills,
Where oft through beechen copse some rivulet trills,
Where, camped at eve, along our lonely track, Red glared the watch-fires of the bivouac. Alternate moments of repose and toil
Thus marked our footprints on the sacred soil; Again the sunrise saw in march proceed The groaning camel and the neighing steed; Again, at sundown, when with travel spent, Like tiny pyramid sprang the mushroom tent, And prostrate forms from brooding silence drew What strength might still our pausing course renew. For conquest thus towards Syrian scenes we hied, Whence soared to heaven in flesh the Deified! Our long-extended ranks slow gliding on From leafless Ziph to cedared Lebanon, Through velvet meadows and umbrageous woods, And now by sedgy meres or brawling floods- Till hoofs no longer pressed the Hebrew sod, By patriarchs tended and by prophets trod; Till scorching drought bade succulent herbage cease, With gradual signs of vegetive decrease; Till, lo! the horizon ringed in stern excess The sterile wonders of the wilderness.
"Colossal ruins in the yellow waste
Our march at length arrested. Art, embraced By Nature, in the desert reared her crest, And like a Sylvan Goddess stood confessed, With all her realms around her in the wild
Where, 'neath cool-clustering palms, our lines defiled. And here, O sultry day! O night serene! O solar Monarch! and O lunar Queen! Thy lamps celestial watched our skill evoke, The buried grandeur from whose graves awoke Forgotten beauty-saw proud roofs again Symmetric shafts in gilded domes sustain- And viewed, o'er rebuilt temples, unconfined My standards ripple in the dallying wind. Around the marble fanes in pastoral bliss Spread the dark verdure of the oasis; My blooming empire, won with bloodless hand- An island anchored in a sea of sand. Exult yet more, O heart of mine! for now The ripest peach melts ruddy on the bough- Life's mellowing hope half realised beside The pale betrothed blushing to a bride! Thine, Edom, thine-sweet Aia till the hour
When lawless love purloined earth's fairest flower."
Shaldazzar ceased, for wilder rose the sound Of revel tuned to music. Grouped around, Disordered in their bacchanal delights, With pampered air, reclined the Sybarites, Whose tones seductive hymned in choral song The liquid rites that festal joys prolong.
Let purple wine-gush, Gush to the goblet's rim; Wine!
Let blood-red wine-blush, Blush to the golden brim.
O, sip the nectar of creation,
Warm like luscious draughts of love;
O, drain the ample chalice, deeper Than the bowl of royal Jove.
Drink, drink to arms replete with pleasure- Drink the valour of the vine!
*Drink, drink to breasts of virgin beauty- Drink in rapture ruby wine! Wine!
Let purple wine-gush, Gush to the goblet's rim; Wine!
Let blood-red wine-blush, Blush to the golden brim.
Above the gorgeous litter, squandered o'er The leopard-skin clad marble, zephyrs bore Refreshing fragrance from dew-dripping grass; Then, ghost-like, 'twixt the pillars forth did pass Once more, where from the midnight's sapphire bloom God's awful stars were thrilling in the gloom. The maiden moon her silver horns beneath The welkin's verge had dipped, and like a wreath Of diamond-sprinkled amaranths, around The brow of Heaven the constellations wound- Along whose sovereign arch the milky way Streamed radiance like a cincture, or like spray Foamed up by surging waves of Time's wild sea, Lapping upon the shores of dread Immensity.
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