Distinct in darkness seen
Above the low horizon’s lingering light
Rose the near ruins of old Babylon.
Once from her lofty walls the Charioteer
Looked down on swarming myriads; once she flung
Her arches o’er Euphrates conquered tide,
And thro’ her brazen portals when she poured
Her armies forth, the distant nations looked
As men who watched the thunder-cloud in fear
Lest it should burst above them. She was fallen,
The Queen of Cities, Babylon was fallen!
Low lay her bulwarks; the black scorpion basked
In the palace courts, within her sanctuary
The She Wolf hid her whelps.
Is yonder huge and shapeless heap, what once
Had been the aerial Gardens, height on height
Rising like Medias mountains crowned with wood,
Work of imperial dotage? where the fame
Of Belus? where the Golden Image now,
Which at the sound of dulcimer and lute,
Cornet and sackbut, harp and psaltery,
The Assyrian slaves adored?
A labyrinth of ruins, Babylon
Spreads o’er the blasted plain:
The wandering Arab never sets his tent
Within her walls; the Shepherd eyes afar
Her evil Towers, and devious drives his flock.
Alone unchanged, a free and bridgeless tide
Euphrates rolls along,
Eternal Nature’s work.
Thro’ the broken portal,
Over weedy fragments,
Thalaba went his way.
Cautious he trod, and felt
The dangerous ground before him with his bow.
The Chacal started at his steps,
The Stork, alarmed at sound of man,
From her broad nest upon the old pillar top,
Affrighted fled on flapping wings.
The Adder in her haunts disturbed
Lanced at the intruding staff her arrowy tongue.
Twilight and moonshine dimly mingling gave
An aweful light obscure,
Evening not wholly closed,
The Moon still pale and faint.
An aweful light obscure,
Broken by many a mass of blackest shade;
Long column stretching dark thro’ weeds and moss,
Broad length of lofty wall
Whose windows lay in light,
And of their former shape, low-arched or square,
Rude outline on the earth
Figured, with long grass fringed.
Reclined against a column’s broken shaft,
Unknowing whitherward to bend his way
He stood and gazed around.
The Ruins closed him in,
It seemed as if no foot of man
For ages had intruded there.
Soon at approaching step
Starting, he turned and saw
A warrior in the moon beam drawing near.
Forward the Stranger came
And with a curious eye
Perused the Arab youth.
“And who art thou,” he cried,
“That at an hour like this
“Wanderest in Babylon?
“A way-bewildered traveller, seekest thou
“The ruinous shelter here?
“Or comest thou to hide
“The plunder of the night?
“Or hast thou spells to make
“These ruins, yawning from their rooted base
“Disclose their secret wealth?”
The youth replied, “nor wandering traveller
“Nor robber of the night
“Nor skilled in spells am I.
“I seek the Angels here,
“Haruth and Maruth. Stranger in thy turn,
“Why wanderest thou in Babylon,
“And who art thou, the Questioner?”
The man was fearless, and the tempered pride
That toned the voice of Thalaba
Displeased not him, himself of haughty heart.
Heedless he answered, “knowest thou
“Their cave of punishment?”
THALABA.
Vainly I seek it.
STRANGER.
Art thou firm of foot
To tread the ways of danger?
THALABA.
Point the path!
STRANGER.
Young Arab! if thou hast a heart can beat
Evenly in danger, if thy bowels yearn not
With human fears, at scenes where undisgraced
The soldier tried in battle might look back
And tremble, follow me!... for I am bound
Into that cave of horrors.
Thalaba
Gazed on his comrade, he was young, of port
Stately and strong; belike his face had pleased
A woman’s eye, yet the youth read in it
Unrestrained passions, the obdurate soul
Bold in all evil daring; and it taught,
By Nature’s irresistible instinct, doubt
Well timed and wary. Of himself assured,
Fearless of man, and confident in faith,
“Lead on!” cried Thalaba.
Mohareb led the way;
And thro’ the ruined streets,
And thro’ the farther gate
They past in silence on.
What sound is borne on the wind?
Is it the storm that shakes
The thousand oaks of the forest?
But Thalaba’s long locks
Flow down his shoulders moveless, and the wind
In his loose mantle raises not one fold.
Is it the river’s roar
Dashed down some rocky descent?
Along the level plain
Euphrates glides unheard.
What sound disturbs the night,
Loud as the summer forest in the storm,
As the river that roars among rocks?
And what the heavy cloud
That hangs upon the vale,
Thick as the mist o’er a well-watered plain
Settling at evening, when the cooler air
Lets its day-vapours fall;
Black as the sulphur-cloud
That thro’ Vesuvius, or from Hecla’s mouth
Rolls up, ascending from the infernal fires.
From Ait’s bitumen lake
That heavy cloud ascends;
That everlasting roar
From where its gushing springs
Boil their black billows up.
Silent the Arab youth,
Along the verge of that wide lake,
Followed Mohareb’s way
Towards a ridge of rocks that banked its side.
There from a cave with torrent force,
And everlasting roar,
The black bitumen rolled.
The moonlight lay upon the rocks.
Their crags were visible,
The shade of jutting cliffs,
And where broad lichens whitened some smooth spot,
And where the ivy hung
Its flowing tresses down.
A little way within the cave
The moonlight fell, glossing the sable tide
That gushed tumultuous out.
A little way it entered, then the rock
Arching its entrance, and the winding way,
Darkened the unseen depths.
No eye of mortal man
If unenabled by enchanted spell,
Had pierced those fearful depths.
For mingling with the roar
Of the portentous torrent, oft were heard
Shrieks, and wild yells that scared
The brooding Eagle from her midnight nest.
The affrighted countrymen
Call it the Mouth of Hell;
And ever when their way leads near
They hurry
with averted eyes,
And dropping their beads fast
Pronounce the holy name.
There pausing at the cavern mouth
Mohareb turned to Thalaba,
“Now darest thou enter in?”
“Behold!” the youth replied,
And leading in his turn the dangerous way
Set foot within the cave.
“Stay Madman!” cried his comrade. “Wouldst thou rush
“Headlong to certain death?
“Where are thine arms to meet
“The Guardian of the Passage?” a loud shriek
That shook along the windings of the cave
Scattered the youth’s reply.
Mohareb when the long reechoing ceased
Exclaimed, “Fate favoured thee,
“Young Arab! when she wrote upon thy brow
“The meeting of to-night;
“Else surely had thy name
“This hour been blotted from the Book of Life!”
So saying from beneath
His cloak a bag he drew;
“Young Arab! thou art brave,” he cried,
“But thus to rush on danger unprepared,
“As lions spring upon the hunter’s spear,
“Is blind, brute courage. Zohak keeps the cave,
“Giantly tyrant of primeval days.
“Force cannot win the passage.” Thus he said
And from his wallet drew a human hand
Shrivelled, and dry, and black,
And fitting as he spake
A taper in its hold,
Pursued: “a murderer on the stake had died,
“I drove the Vulture from his limbs, and lopt
“The hand that did the murder, and drew up
“The tendon-strings to close its grasp,
“And in the sun and wind
“Parched it, nine weeks exposed.
“The Taper,... but not here the place to impart,
“Nor hast thou done the rites,
“That fit thee to partake the mystery.
“Look! it burns clear, but with the air around
“Its dead ingredients mingle deathiness.
“This when the Keeper of the Cave shall feel,
“Maugre the doom of Heaven,
“The salutary spell
“Shall lull his penal agony to sleep
“And leave the passage free.”
Thalaba answered not.
Nor was there time for answer now,
For lo! Mohareb leads,
And o’er the vaulted cave
Trembles the accursed taper’s feeble light.
There where the narrowing chasm
Rose loftier in the hill,
Stood Zohak, wretched man, condemned to keep
His Cave of punishment.
His was the frequent scream
Which far away the prowling Chacal heard
And howled in terror back:
For from his shoulders grew
Two snakes of monster size,
That ever at his head
Aimed eager their keen teeth
To satiate raving hunger with his brain.
He in the eternal conflict oft would seize
Their swelling necks, and in his giant grasp
Bruise them, and rend their flesh with bloody nails,
And howl for agony,
Feeling the pangs he gave, for of himself
Inseparable parts, his torturers grew.
To him approaching now
Mohareb held the withered arm
The Taper of enchanted power.
The unhallowed spell in hand unholy held
Now ministered to mercy, heavily
The wretche’s eyelids closed,
And welcome and unfelt
Like the release of death
A sudden sleep fell on his vital powers.
Yet tho’ along the cave
Lay Zohak’s giant limbs,
The twin-born serpents kept the narrow pass,
Kindled their fiery eyes,
Darted their tongues of terror, and rolled out
Their undulating length,
Like the long streamers of some gallant ship
Buoyed on the wavy air,
Still struggling to flow on and still withheld.
The scent of living flesh
Inflamed their appetite.
Prepared for all the perils of the cave
Mohareb came. He from his wallet drew
Two human heads yet warm.
O hard of heart! whom not the visible power
Of retributive Justice, and the doom
Of Zohak in his sight,
Deterred from equal crime!
Two human heads, yet warm, he laid
Before the scaly guardians of the pass.
They to their wonted banquet of old years
Turned eager, and the narrow pass was free.
And now before their path
The opening cave dilates;
They reach a spacious vault
Where the black river fountains burst their way.
Now as a whirlwind’s force
Had centered on the spring,
The gushing flood rolled up;
And now the deadened roar
Echoed beneath them, as its sudden pause
Left wide a dark abyss,
Adown whose fathomless gulphs the eye was lost.
Blue flames that hovered o’er the springs
Flung thro’ the Cavern their uncertain light
Now waving on the waves they lay,
And now their fiery curls
Flowed in long tresses up,
And now contracting glowed with whiter heat.
Then up they poured again
Darting pale flashes thro’ the tremulous air;
The flames, the red and yellow sulphur-smoke,
And the black darkness of the vault
Commingling indivisibly.
“Here,” quoth Mohareb, “do the Angels dwell,
“The Teachers of Enchantment.” Thalaba
Then raised his voice and cried,
“Haruth and Maruth, hear me! not with rites
“Accursed, to disturb your penitence
“And learn forbidden lore,
“Repentant Angels, seek I your abode.
“Me Allah and the Prophet mission here,
“Their chosen servant I.
“Tell me the Talisman.”...
“And dost thou think”
“Mohareb cried, as with a scornful smile
He glanced upon his comrade, “dost thou think
“To trick them of their secret? for the dupes
“Of human-kind keep this lip-righteousness!
“‘Twill serve thee in the Mosque
“And in the Market-place,
“But Spirits view the heart.
“Only by strong and torturing spells enforced,
“Those stubborn Angels teach the charm
“By which we must descend.”
“Descend!” said Thalaba.
But then the wrinkling smile
Forsook Mohareb’s cheek,
And darker feelings settled on his brow.
“Now by my soul,” quoth he, “and I believe
“Idiot! that I have led
“Some camel-kneed prayer-monger thro’ the cave!
“What brings thee hither? thou shouldest have a hut
“By some Saint’s grave beside the public way,
“There to less-knowing fools
“Retail thy Koran scraps,
“And in thy turn, die civet-like at last
“In the dung-perfume of thy sanctity!...
“Ye whom I seek! that, led by me,
“Feet uninitiate tread
“Your threshold, this atones!
“Fit sacrifice he falls!”
And forth he flashed his scymetar,
And raised the murderous blow.
Then ceased his power; his lifted arm,
Suspended by the spell,
Hung impotent to strike.
“Poor Hypocrite!” cried he,
“And this then is thy faith
“In Allah and the Prophet! they had failed
“To save thee, but for Magic’s stolen aid;
“Yea, they had left thee yonder Serpent’s meal,
“But that, in prudent cowardice,
“The chosen Servant of the Lord came in,
“Safe follower of my path!”
“Blasphemer! dost thou boast of guiding me?”
Kindling with pride quoth Thalaba,
“Blindly the wicked work
“The righteous will of Heaven.
“Sayest thou that diffident of God,
“In magic spell I trust?
“Liar! let witness this!”
And he drew off Abdaldar’s Ring
And cast it in the gulph.
A skinny hand came up
And caught it as it fell,
And peals of devilish laughter shook the Cave.
Then joy suffused Mohareb’s cheek,
And Thalaba beheld
The blue blade gleam, descending to destroy.
The undefended youth
Sprung forward, and he seized
Mohareb in his grasp,
And grappled with him breast to breast.
Sinewy and large of limb Mohareb was,
Broad-shouldered, and his joints
Knit firm, and in the strife
Of danger practised well.
Time had not thus matured young Thalaba:
But now the enthusiast mind,
The inspiration of his soul
Poured vigour like the strength
Of madness thro’ his frame.
Mohareb reels before him! he right on
With knee, with breast, with arm,
Presses the staggering foe!
And now upon the brink
Of that tremendous spring,
There with fresh impulse and a rush of force
He thrust him from his hold.
The upwhirling flood received
Mohareb, then, absorbed,
Engulphed him in the abyss.
Thalaba’s breath came fast,
And panting he breathed out
A broken prayer of thankfulness.
At length he spake and said,
“Haruth and Maruth! are ye here?
“Or has that evil guide misled my search?
“I, Thalaba, the Servant of the Lord,
“Invoke you. Hear me Angels! so may Heaven
“Accept and mitigate your penitence.
“I go to root from earth the Sorcerer brood,
Complete Poetical Works of Robert Southey Page 103