The last of the Abencerrages

Front matter

c^ m

THE LAST

OF

Preface

In laying the following volume before the public eye, the author has little more to say, by way of preface, than to observe, that, with the exception of the Tribute to the Great Alfred, the Last of the Abencerrages, and one or two others, the following effusions have already appeared in various periodicals. To have attempted any thing, indeed, on the subject of Alfred beyond a simple eulogy, might justly have been deemed presumption — how much more so after the great poetic and other literary monuments, which, from time to time, have been dedicated to his illustrious deeds and character ! The author's sole ambition was to express a sense of individual as well as national gratitude to one of the greatest founders of English liberty. It was also

VI PREFACE.

his wish to induce all young students and admirers of our famed old British and Saxon ancestors to fill up the sketch here exhibited in a manner worthy of so great a subject.

If it in the least tend to keep alive those feelings of reverence for worth and genius, ever combined Avith an aspiring and indomitable energy and force of example — the noblest heritage of a proud people; if it awaken one glow of emulative virtue and enthusiasm for the cause of truth, honour, and national independence, his dearest object will have been attained. To take a grateful pride in the well earned fame of a noble ancestry is to give a pledge to fortune and to the future — a security for the principles which made them great. The heroic toils of our great-hearted benefactors purchased us our free and joyous rest amidst surrounding storms; the blood of England's martyrs became the life of our religion and our civil polity ; and by their faith in truth and good were we made whole.

Is it much, under the Providential blessings we enjoy, free institutions, resulting

PREFACE. VII

from their long and time -hallowed labours, to express, national respect and admiration in the very warmest poetical language we can ? Nor has this sentiment been confined to any one age, country, or period of time. The renown of Alfred became of cosmopolitan importance, and shone with even greater lustre centuries ago. It pervaded the capitals of all nations, and its echoes were repeated in the least refined and cultivated provinces.

As regards the poetic fiction of " The Last of the Abencerrages," it is founded on some traditionary events, presumed to have happened on the fall of the Moorish empire in Spain. The Siege of Granada combined, within brief space, a series of events the most romantic and extraordinary perhaps of any upon record. It abounded, too, with characters the most varied and striking — lofty, patriotic, wild, and terrible. Many have been historically pourtrayed by the hands both of Arab and Castilian writers. The author has sought to render the most bold and salient of these subservient to his design. The legend — for it is, most pro-

VI 11 PREFACE.

bably, little more — of the fate of the Abencerrages is one susceptible of the highest interest, and of the most varied and absorbing character. The hero, descended from one of the noblest families of Granada, boasting a pure Arabian origin from the great Khaliphs of the East, is represented as the type of Moorish chivalry, the loftiest and most influential of all the tribe-leaders of Granada. He was proud to belong to what may be termed the aristocracy of the old Arab shepherd kings, from whom, doubtless, the great conqueror, Antar, derived his noble blood — like our hero, favourably distinguished from the wilder and more barbarous families of the African Moors.

The subject was adopted by the author as the fittest vehicle by which to convey sentiments of high-minded generosity and devoted fidelity, as contrasted with the opposite characteristics. The sense of lofty honour, chivalrous courage, and lively enthusiasm for religion, was strongly felt by the Spanish Moors. The duties also flowing from ardent patriotism, magnanimity of

PREFACE. IX

mind, with precepts of pure expansive charity, some of which were transferred to the Koran from the Jewish Kabbis, are freely treated without reference to peculiar creeds or parties; as laws and obligations essentially existing in the divine ordinances, recommended by the one greatest and holiest of all authorities. These only received their final confirmation by the light, strength, and beauty of Christian truths.

Of the wonderful power and resources of the successors of Mohammed, of the great Khaliphs, and subsequently of the Arab conquerors and monarchs of Spain, from the second to the ninth era of the Ilejira, the historians of all nations have left ample testimony. Their rapid triumphs, with the simultaneous growth and development of their government, present some singular phenomena, which, closely and philosophically investigated, will be found to contain both political and social truths, which it had been well for the future welfare of Spain and other countries if they had regarded more carefully. The principles of their civil and social rule were essentially

a 5

X PREFACE.

expansive and productive. Their conquests once achieved, the sword was sheathed, and their colonial system, like earlier Rome's, was one of rare vigour and capaciousness. They combined the elements of power with an industrial civilization ; their laws with the wants of existing communities among the conquered, favourable at once to scientific progress and that of population. Unmatched in ornamental architecture, their palatial towers, mosques, fortresses, like their exquisite palace-residences, serais, halls, courts, and hanging gardens, were all on a scale of beauty and magnificence, especially in the interiors, never before witnessed. They displayed all the resources of a refined genius, with a delicate rather than lavish luxury, still observant of the useful and the agreeable. But it was in the recesses of these splendid interiors that their full beauty was to be seen : in the elaborate displays of artistic resources ; in the contrasted forms, colours, and devices, the rich mosaics ; in the varied marbles, grounds, and fountains; in the multiplicity and refinements of taste, that their peculiar genius

PREFACE. XI

most triumphed. Thus the Alhambra, so little imposing in its exterior, startles the spectator with surprise at its varied and elaborate beauties on his entrance, and still more as he explores its interior courts and halls. If fallen, time-worn, and deserted, it yet fascinates the eye, how gorgeous and enchanting, with all its splendid decorative furniture, must it not have appeared in its newest lustre, animated with the living forms of chivalry and beauty, and resounding to the thousand voiced genius of Eastern fame, fable, and the true revelry of dance and song ! Of the mingled fire and artistic forms, figures, and devices of these saltatory reunions and exhibitions of national amusements, Europeans can form but a feeble idea ; although they have left their traces in the morris, the sword-dance, and not a few other modern figures.

Still what was the Alhambra, but really what its name imports ? — a large rambling " red house," if contrasted with the wonders, the glory of artistic triumphs, witnessed under the rule of Bagdad's mighty Khaliphs, and the first Moorish monarchs of

Xll PREFACE.

Cordova. While the rest of Europe was centuries behind, in a state of comparative barbarism, that city, which presents only the traces of its former grandeur, could boast nearly a thousand public temples, with fortress-towers, mosques, and palaces, and its innumerable seats of art and learning. Thither the students, scholars, and travellers, from every part of the world, thronged, as to a grand European metropolis. The Court itself vied with the professors of Science, and opened halls for learned leisure, and the discussion of interesting and useful questions, at which the ministers and monarchs themselves presided. It was thus that the old Khaliphs, and the dynasty of the Abderrahmans, became so famous, and the theme of those charming fictions in which they are so popularly represented. They took part in the subtle disquisitions of the lawyers and physicians, and listened to the prize recitations of historians, orators, and poets.

Even up to the fourteenth century, no fewer than fifty learned foundations adorned the magnificent plain of Granada. Through-

PREFACE. Xlll

out the Moorish dominions, public libraries and schools for artisans abounded, equal to the wants of a well-fed and full-employed population. An enlightened and most productive system of agriculture kept pace with the mechanic arts, trade, and commerce. Europe is more especially indebted to those mathematical, astronomic, and nautical discoveries, which subsequently became auxiliary to the development of the modern sciences, and the great instruments of civilizing power. The science of algebra, the manufacture of paper, and the appliances of gunpowder to mining and other operations, are only among a few. The means, too, made use of to render their inventions profitable and popular, were all on the most finished scale. Hence their observatories and alcazars, their science of numbers and astronomic calculations. On the subject of history alone, they possessed upwards of a thousand reputed writers; logic and metaphysics were their peculiar study and delight; and that they excelled in a great variety of subjects, the numerous translations diffused throughout the world attest.

XIV PREFACE.

European Chivalry, and its religious Orders, were avowedly derived from the East. The mirror of Knighthood and the school of manners, it also became the parent of charitable orders, and other institutions of a civilizing and ennobling kind. Indeed, the gentlemanly character of the early Khaliphs and Sultans has been amply recorded, with their beneficence and generosity ; and, in so far, some of the best existing traits in the European mind were derived from its intercourse with the more polished and generous conquerors of the East.

Happy, had the descendants of the Goth pursued a colonizing system like theirs, instead of the exterminating process, founded on cruel bigotry and persecution — a process which necessarily terminates in national degradation, and loss of character and influence in the great European community.

With regard to the minor poems, written on various occasions, the author feels bound to bespeak the indulgence of the impartial reader, distinct from all political and party considerations. A wider margin ought to be allowed in such matters to the expression

PREFACE. XV

of poetical sentiments and opinions — as immemorially conceded to bardic effusions, either of the hall or the cottage, than to the soberer investigations of prose narrative.

For the liberal tone which pervades these productions of the hour no apology need be offered, least of all to a British reader, whose sense of gratitude to Providence for the institutions under which he lives ought to command his sympathies for suffering humanity, and for every country less happily circumstanced than his own. No Englishman should be afraid to avow his reverence for that inalienable right of every people — above all claims of conquest, or forced treaties — national independence. This right of resisting — identical with that of self-preservation — is based both on divine and human, on natural and on social laws. The most scrupulous lawgiver and the bard here go hand in hand. The political iniquity of an arbitrary partition of free States, upon any plea, has been amply proved, and is universally acknowledged. It has been known, indeed, by its bitter fruits ; and it may be

XVI PREFACE.

advanced as an irrefragable axiom, the contempt of which is sure to bring down heavy future retribution, that, in violating such a right, the conqueror signs the death-warrant of his own dynastic power and position among nations. What the sense of honour is esteemed to be to man, and the no less precious gem of chastity to woman, such to every distinct people is the imprescriptible title to national independence.

Contents

PAGE

Naval Song. To the Memory of the Great Alfred . 1

The Last of the Abencerrages .... 5

Canto I

Hail ! chastening friend, Adversity — 'tis thine The mental ore to temper and refine, To cast in virtue's mould the yielding heart, And honour's polish to the mind impart.

The Sultan of M ousel.

I

'Tis night — but radiant night ! No day Of colder climes pours half the glows Of mellow'd fire, that ne'er its ray

Of beauty pales : peak-purpling snows High crown the Alhambra's palm-girt pride ; Heaven's spangled glory, streaming wide, Bathes air, earth, stream, in one embrace, Ere Day's bright Lord renew his race. Dome, spire, and crested minaret, In Darro's stream reflected yet, The ruddy light of vermeil towers, O'erarching courts and myrtle-bowers — Founts, gardens, groves of Eastern bloom — All Beauty's empire — ripe for doom.

(J THE LAST OP

The glory of a thousand years

Was setting in the storm of spears :

First flash'd to birth, with thunder-voice,

The dread artillery's battle-joys,

Startling men's hearts with strange dismay,

To see time-hallow'd works its prey —

Towers crumble — strength, skill vain ! — dread

power That reigns o'er ruins — Despots' dower, Death-forg'd in Demons' darkest hour. Victors, whose fame had fill'd the earth, To faith, war, song, another birth, New era, given: bright Crescent-sway, That long eclips'd the Christian day ; Whose world-wide conquests scarce took

breath From their full harvest-fields of death — Now take their last, sad, gallant stand, The mark of Fate's unerring hand ; Confront yon leaguer'd hosts, whose arms Gleam on the crests that beauty warms To many a feat those foes shall rue, Ere won, proud empire, held so true.

ii.

Still'd now the clamours of the fight, Day's gallant toil seeks sheltering night — No bridegroom gay, but stern, foredone, Like hireling at the set of sun —

Yet in his dreams dealing swift fate On the fierce foe his country's hate. Brief pause — strange contrast with such war Heaven, earth, around so passing fair, Like flowers hun£ o'er some funeral bier — Young J oy that mocks the mourner's tear : So looks the eve ; so bright, elate, That hangs o'er that proud people's fate.

Yon moon, by shepherds blest, how clear,

Deep, blue-arch'd skies, homes, hopes long dear —

A land all passion-lov'd — sweet joy

Of song, romance, with no alloy

Of doubt or fear, 'neath Allah's shield ;

Children of Faith, untaught to yield ;

No sound like the great Prophet's name,

JSTo sight like war, no dread but shame :

To Love's bright smile, or Beauty's tears.

The device due each true knight wears.

III. The quiet beauty of the hills

Fleet shadows of embowering trees, Flower'd sweep of moonlit banks, that fills

With stream-cool fragrance every breeze. Life's sorrows soothe. Can War dwell here ?

Can Madness fire men's hearts, Where Nature's glories prompt the tear,

Or sigh for Love's, not Mars', fierce darts ?

Hark to the wild bird's vesper-song,

Days departed splendour hymning ! 1 The folded herds — the low hum long

Of home-bound bees — and fresh lights streaming O'er hill, vale, rill — the gorgeous train Of fleecy hues, chased o'er the plain By trails of the sun's glorious light — Swift couriers ushering in the night. All peaceful night ! — so wondrous blest, When Nature from her teeming breast. With lavish love, Heaven's bounty strows — Flowers, meads, and woods, in deep repose, To fill the lap of joy and love — Youth's first fresh raptures from Above — When two bright beings met in bliss, In such a clime, such night as this.

IV. " Trembles the hand — sighs fill the heart

The vision of the coming scene Falls like a pall — will not depart —

Life's spectral woes — all that has been. Still, as the forms rise, dark and sad,

T' appal young Fancy's shuddering sense ; In Fiction's robes those stern truths clad —

No, never, never may go hence :

1 From a sonnet by Camoens,

THE ABENCEEEAGES. V

They tear the breast — they fire the brain.

Where dwell the thoughts that pass not by; The hopes that may not live again

Love's life-consuming agony.

In pictur'd griefs, to tell a tale

Of truth that rends the conscious soul, Draws tears from eyes that did not quail

To scan the Fates' fast gathering roll. Nor boots it to avert the gaze —

The record there must never die, While every glance of Fancy's rays

Burns with Truth's immortality."

With thoughts like these, what hero-breast Would scorn the hermit's happy rest ? Too blest had he — the last, the best Of his proud tribes — 'scap'd Fortune's doom, Nor found the world a living tomb. Yes ; last, worst lot is his who breathes Sighs feign'd not — who no fiction wreathes, But Love's palms for a rival's brow, Must every noblest aim forego, And stoop in dervise-guise to dress His own supreme, lost wretchedness : The feats of victor-rival tell — All made his heaven on earth a hell. Two hearts so full of joy, to steep Its beauty in the founts that weep,

b 5

I THE LAST OF

Not like the murmur'd whisperings now — The halo-bliss that wreathes their brow : The simoom of the soul once past, >7o passion more has power to blast — Soon other accents pierce the sky. " Oh, fatal hour ! — nor she e'en nigh, To take these tears, this last best sigh !"

v.

The cypress and the myrtle well

Bloom in one bower l — Love's symboll'd life, Where beauty spreads her sweetest spell

O'er brilliant Knighthood's storm and strife. Yes, in that Eden, like the Blest

Of Paradise, their Prophet feign'd, Shone two, whose brief but blissful rest,

From war and woe, their hearts sustain'd, 'Midst the last tempest's scattering breath, On wings of havoc, exile, death. Ah ! 'tis a fearful thing to dare Snatch trembling joys where demons glare, With all their hideous guests, that mock Love's daring hopes, to meet the shock, Fate's fiercest hounds, that track the brave, Bright, faithful, best — to early grave. The peerless maid, of princely stem, That long had propp'd the diadem

1 As appeared in the royal gardens of the Generalife, sacred to the sultanas and princesses of the Moorish court.

THE ABEXCERRAGES. II

Of Moor's fair sovereignty, and thrown Its branches wide — outstripp'd, outshone. The proudest of the race Atar, Whose sires, still leaders of the war, Had borne the sacred banner's pride Through hosts and States that now deride The waning Crescent's lessening beams, Fast verging on the land of dreams — Shone soft and beauteous as the Dove, Watching her Prophet's cave — all love — Where sly Arachne's subtle art Screened him from fell foes' deathliest dart. 1

VI. Imagine all of Heaven and Earth

Commingling best in Woman's form — Soul, Faith, and Angel-love's bright worth —

Perils, nor trials, nor Time's worm, Nor Calumnies can e'er impair, So sweetly blend the good and fair : Ali, the head of the Atar, Such gem boasts on the brow of War ; With many a banded legion's pride, And chiefs who sought the father's side — The daughter's love — proud to excel, And win fame 'neath that witching spell :

1 The old Moslem tradition of the escape of Mohammed, and his temporary sanctuary, guarded by the spider and the dove.

Nor words that witchery could convey To souls of fire which felt its sway : 'Twas knit with song and chivalry — Faith., soul — part of themselves : the free, The boundless spirit's soaring aim, Ineffable, no law can tame.

Describe that walk? — the bosom's swell Responds what tongue could never tell : The air, the living grace, Youth's love, Whose lightning flash, struck from above, Bids eyes to eyes — souls speak again — From some strange source, makes bliss a pain. Such the soft, stately gesture's swell, Chance seen in the young, proud gazelle — Wild Arab's steed, just rein'd — the glow Of glancing fawn — bright things that show Perfection in young life, shape, air, As though they dared us to compare. Flower of the myrtle-garden's pride — Of soul to Peri-charm allied — Nature's and Love's like favourite boast, By no dark Afrite's cloud-veil cross'd ; Pure, bright, as Lebid's * Koran song, That in the Kaaba's Temple hung — Fresh fount, or music on the gale, That streams through Yemen's moon-lit vale- Zelia, the joy of rivals' eyes — Of princeliest chiefs, the wish'd-for prize. 1 One of the most celebrated poets of Yemen.

THE ABENCEKEAGES, 13

VII. What spirit of the glorious dream

Of youth and Paradise, first taught That heart to beat, that soul to beam,

With loveliest visions fancy-fraught ? A Prince of the Abencerrage —

The Phoebus of that warrior-quire, In port and pride — threw down " the gage,'"

Seized by one royal foe of fire — Granada's tears — a vial streaming All o'er with wrath, but fair in seeming.

Above them, in that gorgeous sky — All stars — Love's light is glowing ; And in yon rills scarce flowing,

Bright mimic lustres lie ; 1 And soft, low airs, rich, fragrance-fed,

From Linderaxa's blooming bowers,

From founts fresh spangled with such flowers As only there their incense shed, From lily-cups East splendour dight, That ope their sweetness to the night. More blest all that deep calm that fell

On Nature's breast — for man's fierce strife, That, passion-wearied, felt the spell

By silence breath'd o'er maddening life, As if, wrapt in wild war-god's arms,

The beauteous love-queen smiling lay —

1 These four lines are borrowed from Mr. Lockhart's admirable version of old Spanish ballads.

The young joys revell'd 'mid alarms —

Hope grasp'd at bliss that might not stay. Heaven's dream, more vivid than earth's;

truth, Wooed Fancy's Peri-land of youth — Thought, passion — all, two souls in one, Joy-trembling, fear'd too swiftly flown.

VIII. Was heard no sound but of the bird

Whose thrill of passionate delight Stream'd emulous ; when nothing stirr'd

Save sacred to the scene and night : The soul's rich music to the ear

Of Beauty breath'd, in such a clime, In whisper'd words of fire, more dear

For all the fears of that dark time. The first delicious consciousness Of blended hearts — the wish to bless Another — speaks it not with voice Of Heaven, that bids man more rejoice, When freed from self — the miser's care — He strives to reach the bright and fair : Prizes great Allah's law supreme, To aid the poor, and nobly deem The generous mind that Love inspires, Fill'd with a zeal that never tires : But from that one, all-bounteous source Of love directs its heavenward course,

THE ABE^CEKRAGES. 1 5

Spreading its sympathies far round

The sorrowing earth — its hallow'd ground !

Such soul of love was theirs — all great,

Devoted, spirit-strong, elate —

Th' Elysium's charms, so fondly drawn

By Arab bards since Song's first dawn,

High hopes the Faithful only feel,

On lovers' hearts, as on their steel, 1

Writ in bright characters — a flame

To light to faith, to love, and fame.

" Yes — great is Allah — and how good !"

Spake the plumed chief — the eloquent blood

Mantling his Zelia's neck and cheek —

Language that made all words seem weak :

" He, he alone, who rules on high,

Holding the scales of Destiny,

Through his great Prophet breath'd his will,

Given but the Faithful to fulfil —

Could rapturous moments such as these

Vouchsafe in his all kind decrees."

" Sure, Hammed feigns ; for, if so dear,"

Broke on that young Chief's raptured ear,

" Would he so long oft leave my side,

Wild plunging in the battle's-tide ?

Or, if 'tis writ that we must part,

Is't dear to break the loving heart ?"

1 It was a custom with the heads of tribes, among the Moors of Spain, to have cut upon then* scimitars and javelins some favourite maxim on love, or faith, from the Koran.

" Ah ! jest not, Zelia ! Hear me vow — Sultana ne'er was loved as thou ; Nor maids of earth, nor paradise, Boasted, 'mong hero-blest, such price : Dear as fresh fount to pilgrim's lip — To young gazelle green valley deep — Loved as the call of its lost mate To the wild roe — revenge to hate !" " Stop ! dare not !" was her wild reply, " Breathe words that wake to agony Each trembling fear ! Oh ! Hammed's love Such dark thoughts should soar far above : Or, will you hate ? then hear me vow — The Prince shall be as loved as thou."

IX

Then flash'd a fire from those dark eyes Made the fair speaker start : as flies The bright steel to the magnet's law, Hand to the scimitar — to draw — Spoke, too, the prince of his proud line : " My soul's sultana — love's divine — Light of thy glad sire's eyes — my star Of glory, 'mid the storms of war — What word that stabs and kills ! — forbear — Name him not! for dread Azrael's there l — Hovers insatiate as the grave, With jealous fiends ! — not you may save 1 The Angel of Death.

His forfeit life — should he more dare Pollute thy beauty with his prayer : Not Eblis' 1 self more hated, scorn'd — Yet demon-love for Peri burn'd !" — " Too well you know Abdallah ! Dark His soul as Zegri's ; 2 not one spark Of honour lights to virtue's path — Fierce, reckless, full of pride and wrath. My Hammed, if you love, then fear To risk all that we hold so dear, By madly waking one whose power Climbs high as Eblis' loftiest tower, From which, aloft, he far surveys Man's darkest paths and secret ways, Panting to crown Ambition's lust — All sacred ties to tread in dust, That bind to Allah, to his sire — His country — and that holiest fire To prophets given — the law of love — Child's, woman's shield — all gifts above — When, on the tablets of the heart, Heaven-traced in lines not Azrael's dart Can raze : but, ah ! I fear to read The ' letters ' of that faithless creed, Which never made response, when calls Muezzin 3 from the sacred walls,

1 Eblis, the great Spirit of Evil.

2 The rival tribes of the Abencerrages.

3 The priest of one of the religious orders, answering to our officiating clergy.

At matin hour, or vesper's bell, Nor prizes customs loved so well By every child of Allah's laws Who seeks His glory, His applause." " Pride of thy bright land's heart ! soft light Of gladness through the gathering night — Joy of my tribe and chiefs ! Oh, tell What 'tis — that fond, wild, blissful spell That rules me — soothes each fiercer sense — Drives all but joy, love, reverence, hence, As if from hallow'd ground. Thou near — Fate, foes, or rivals — who would fear? That voice — those words of noble soul — Inspire, sway, guide with strange control — Raise me above all meaner aims To thine — till hero-love inflames My heart to hopes — deeds that shall tell How Hammed loved — how Hammed fell : Not all unworthy of the light Of glorious love that blest his sight — Drank glory from thy smiles — from eyes That give him promised paradise : Favor'd beyond all of his race, Clasp'd in bright Zelia's soul's embrace, Dear as to night's enamour'd bird, Dew-fragrant rosebuds, when first heard At hour like this his thrilling song." .... Nor deem it, ye love-loyal, wrong, If beating heart to heart spoke well, What hero-song could never tell—

But murmuring sounds of sweet delight, That fill'd the ear of conscious Night. " Yes, flatterer ! it was thus you caught My heart's first love — ere yet he sought — That dark Abdallah — from my sire To make me bride to woe and ire. 'Twas thus, in sportive mood — so young — Our sires, both princely, valiant, strong, To raise their plumes of power more high, Our early loves sought to descry, And lead us, ah ! where all too fast, Our love-fates bore us : but the past, Vain to recall." —

" 'Tis glory, love — All Heaven can give : the mystic dove That watch'd the Prophet's cave, no more Could show the Faithful to adore, While thus encircled in these arms." .... " Ah ! could they save from war's alarms — Guard thee — and Zelia's life, in thine — Teach you to prize life more divine ! Love you, dear Hammed? let us fly, Seek yon far shrine of Mecca's sky ; And in those happy vales, where Love Devoutest feels the fire above, The shepherd-lot our fathers prized, Like Antar lead — yet not disguised ; But in full truthful garb array'd, And none but pilgrim-poets' raid

Be ours — to spoil the treasured lore Of Persian lays : to wade through gore And human woe to scepter'd pride Leave we to those who love deride — Prefer to spurn at Allah's laws : But thou, thy shepherd-land's applause, Thy Zelia's, prize ! — so shall He bless Thy good works in the wilderness ; Teaching the children of our race Content and simple wants — to trace Their life-lines by the great and free, Nor bend the hero-shepherd's knee To foe and fiend who rule the world, Where grandeur-vice its sails unfurl'd. And you shall doff those dazzling arms For pilgrim's staff, for minstrel's charms, And sing for me those true-heart lays, Sweet Yemen's bards, in loved land's praise."

x.

The vision, and the form divine,

Scarce burst to all-rejoicing light, Ere dark, as bright those beauties shine,

Some evil genii start — to blight The glory of the god-like birth —