"For it is not as a flower whose scent with the drop ping leaves expires, And it is not as a household lamp, that a breath should quench its fires; It is written on our battle-fields with the writing of the sword, It hath left upon our desert-sands a light in blessings pour'd. "The founts, the many gushing founts, which to the wild ye gave, Of you, my chiefs, shall sing aloud, as they pour a joyous wave; And the groves, with whose deep lovely gloom ye hung the pilgrim's way, Shall send from all their sighing leaves your praises on the day. "The very walls your bounty rear'd, for the stranger's homeless head, Shall find a murmur to record your tale, my glorious dead! Tho' the grass be where ye feasted once, where lute and cittern rung, And the serpent in your palaces lie coil'd amidst its young. "It is enough! mine eye no more of joy or splendour sees, I leave your name in lofty faith, to the skies and to the breeze! since earth her flower hath lost, to join the bright and fair, And call the grave a kingly house, for ye, my chiefs, are there!" But while the old man sang, a mist of tears O'er Haroun's eyes had gathered, and a thought-- Of his youth's once-lov'd friends, the martyr'd race O'erflowed his softening heart." Live, live!" he cried, "Thou faithful unto death! live on, and still Speak of thy lords; they were a princely band!" THE SPANISH CHAPEL.* Weep not for those whom the veil of the tomb, MOORE. I MADE a mountain-brook my guide, Thro' a wild Spanish glen, And wandered, on its grassy side, It lured me with a singing tone, To a green spot of beauty lone, A haunt for old romance. * Suggested by a scene beautifully described in the "Recollections of the Peninsula." A dim and deeply-bosom'd grove Of many an aged tree, Such as the shadowy violets love, The fawn and forest-bee. The darkness of the chestnut bough The bright stream reverently below, And bore a music all subdued, On thro' the breathing solitude Of that rich leafy scene. For something viewlessly around Of solemn influence dwelt, In the soft gloom, and whispery sound, Not to be told, but felt: |