Yet will I come-where thou art not!- To kiss the wild-flowers which have shed Their fragrance o'er thy lowly bed; To weave a garland for thy tomb! CLEOPATRA. 18 AFTER DANBY'S PICTURE OF THE EGYPTIAN QUEEN EMBARKING ON THE CYDNUS. The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, Purple the sails; and so perfumed that The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were silver; The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes. FLUTES in the sunny air! SHAKSPEARE. And harps in the porphyry halls! And a low, deep hum,—like a people's prayer,— With its heart-breathed swells and falls! And an echo,-like the desart's call,— Flung back to the shouting shores! And the river's ripple, heard through all, The sky is a gleam of gold! And the amber breezes float, Like thoughts to be dreamed of—but never told, Around the dancing boat! She has stepped on the burning sand! And the thousand tongues are mute! And the Syrian strikes, with a trembling hand, The strings of his gilded lute! And the Æthiop's heart throbs loud and high, Beneath his white symar, And the Lybian kneels, as he meets her eye, Like the flash of an Eastern star! The gales may not be heard, Yet the silken streamers quiver, And the vessel shoots-like a bright-plumed bird, Away-down the golden river ! Away by the lofty mount! And away by the lonely shore! And away by the gushing of many a fount, Oh! for some warning vision, there, Of climes to be laid waste and bare, And glad, young spirits broken ! Of waters dried away, And hope and beauty blasted! -That scenes so fair and hearts so gay Should be so early wasted! A dream of other days!— And grief grew up, to dim the blaze The whirlwind's burning wing hath cast Blight on the marble plain, And sorrow-like the Simoom-past O'er Cleopatra's brain! Too like her fervid clime, that bred Its self-consuming fires,— Her breast-like Indian widows-fed Its own funereal pyres! —Not such the song her minstrels sing,— "Live, beauteous, and for ever!" 19 As the vessel darts, with its purple wing, Away-down the golden river! |