Saw it united with its parent pile
One huge fantastic fabric. Drawing near,
Loud from the chambers of the bridge below,
Sounds of carousal came and song,
And unveiled women bade the advancing youth
Come merry-make with them.
Unhearing or unheeding, Thalaba
Past o’er with hurried pace,
And plunged amid the forest solitude.
Deserts of Araby!
His soul returned to you.
He cast himself upon the earth
And closed his eyes, and called
The voluntary vision up.
A cry as of distress
Aroused him; loud it came, and near!
He started up, he strung his bow,
He plucked the arrow forth.
Again a shriek... a woman’s shriek!
And lo! she rushes thro’ the trees,
Her veil all rent, her garments torn!
He follows close, the ravisher....
Even on the unechoing grass
She hears his tread, so close!
“Prophet save me! save me God!
“Help! help!” she cried to Thalaba,
Thalaba drew the bow.
The unerring arrow did its work of death.
He turned him to the woman, and beheld
His own Oneiza, his Arabian Maid.
THALABA THE DESTROYER. BOOK VII.
From fear, amazement, joy,
At length the Arabian Maid recovering speech,
Threw around Thalaba her arms and cried,
“My father! O my father!” Thalaba
In wonder lost, yet fearful to enquire,
Bent down his cheek on hers,
And their tears mingled as they fell.
ONEIZA.
At night they seized me, Thalaba! in my sleep,...
Thou wert not near,... and yet when in their grasp
I woke, my shriek of terror called on thee.
My father could not save me,... an old man!
And they were strong and many,... O my God,
The hearts they must have had to hear his prayers,
And yet to leave him childless!
THALABA.
We will seek him.
We will return to Araby.
ONEIZA.
Alas!
We should not find him, Thalaba! our tent
Is desolate, the wind hath heaped the sands
Within its door, the lizard’s track is left
Fresh on the untrodden dust; prowling by night
The tyger, as he passes hears no breath
Of man, and turns to search its solitude.
Alas! he strays a wretched wanderer
Seeking his child! old man, he will not rest,...
He cannot rest, his sleep is misery,
His dreams are of my wretchedness, my wrongs....
O Thalaba! this is a wicked place!
Let us be gone!
THALABA.
But how to pass again
The iron doors that opening at a breath
Gave easy entrance? armies in their strength,
Would fail to move those hinges for return!
ONEIZA.
But we can climb the mountains that shut in
This dreadful garden.
THALABA.
Are Oneiza’s limbs
Equal to that long toil?
ONEIZA.
Oh I am strong
Dear Thalaba! for this... fear gives me force,
And you are with me!
So she took his hand,
And gently drew him forward, and they went
Towards the mountain chain.
It was broad moonlight, and obscure or lost
The garden beauties lay,
But the great boundary rose, distinctly marked.
These were no little hills,
No sloping uplands lifting to the sun
Their vine-yards, with fresh verdure, and the shade
Of ancient woods, courting the loiterer
To win the easy ascent: stone mountains these
Desolate rock on rock,
The burthens of the earth,
Whose snowy summits met the morning beam
When night was in the vale, whose feet were fixed
In the world’s foundations. Thalaba surveyed
The heights precipitous,
Impending crags, rocks unascendible,
And summits that had tired the eagle’s wing;
“There is no way!” he cried.
Paler Oneiza grew
And hung upon his arm a feebler weight.
But soon again to hope
Revives the Arabian maid,
As Thalaba imparts the sudden thought.
“I past a river,” cried the youth
“A full and copious stream.
“The flowing waters cannot be restrained
“And where they find or force their way,
“There we perchance may follow, thitherward
“The current rolled along.”
So saying yet again in hope
Quickening their eager steps
They turned them thitherward.
Silent and calm the river rolled along,
And at the verge arrived
Of that fair garden, o’er a rocky bed
Towards the mountain base,
Still full and silent, held its even way,
But the deep sound, the dash
Louder and louder in the distance rose,
As if it forced its stream
Struggling with crags along a narrow pass.
And lo! where raving o’er a hollow course
The ever-flowing tide
Foams in a thousand whirlpools! there adown
The perforated rock
Plunge the whole waters, so precipitous,
So fathomless a fall
That their earth-shaking roar came deadened up
Like subterranean thunders.
“Allah save us!”
Oneiza cried, “there is no path for man
“From this accursed place!”
And as she spake her joints
Were loosened, and her knees sunk under her.
“Cheer up, Oneiza!” Thalaba replied,
“Be of good heart. We cannot fly
“The dangers of the place,
“But we can conquer them!”
And the young Arab’s soul
Arose within him; “what is he,” he cried,
“Who has prepared this garden of delight,
“And wherefore are its snares?”
The Arabian Maid replied,
“The Women when I entered, welcomed me
“To Paradise, by Aloadin’s will
“Chosen like themselves, a Houri of the Earth.
“They told me, credulous of his blasphemies,
“That Aloadin placed them to reward
“His faithful servants with the joys of Heaven.
“O Thalaba, and all are ready here
“To wreak his wicked will, and work all crimes!
“How then shall we escape?”
“Woe to him!” cried the Appointed, a stern smile
Darkening with stronger shades his countenance,
“Woe to him! he hath laid his toils
“To take the Antelope,
“The Lion is come in!”
She shook her head, “a Sorcerer he
“And guarded by so many! Thalaba,...
“And thou but one!”
He raised his hand to Heaven,
“Is there not God, Oneiza?
“I have a Talisman, that, whoso bears,
“Him, nor the Earthly, nor the Infernal Powers
“Of Evil can cast down.
“Remember Destiny
“Hath marked me from mankind!
“Now rest in faith, and I will guard thy sleep!”
So on a violet bank
The Arabian Maid lay down,
Her soft cheek pillowed upon moss and flowers.
She lay in silent prayer,
Till prayer had tranquillized her fears,
And sleep fell on her. By her side
Silent sate Thalaba,
And gazed upon the Maid,
And as he gazed, drew in
New courage and intenser faith,
And waited calmly for the eventful day.
Loud sung the Lark, the awakened Maid
Beheld him twinkling in the morning light,
And wished for wings and liberty like his.
The flush of fear inflamed her cheek,
But Thalaba was calm of soul,
Collected for the work.
He pondered in his mind
How from Lobaba’s breast
His blunted arrow fell.
Aloadin too might wear
Spell perchance of equal power
To blunt the weapon’s edge!
Beside the river-brink,
Rose a young poplar, whose unsteady leaves
Varying their verdure to the gale,
With silver glitter caught
His meditating eye.
Then to Oneiza turned the youth
And gave his father’s bow,
And o’er her shoulders slung
The quiver arrow-stored.
“Me other weapon suits;” said he,
“Bear thou the Bow: dear Maid!
“The days return upon me, when these shafts,
“True to thy guidance, from the lofty palm
“Brought down the cluster, and thy gladdened eye
“Exulting turned to seek the voice of praise.
“Oh! yet again Oneiza, we shall share
“Our desert joys!”
So saying to the bank
He moved, and stooping low,
With double grasp, hand below hand, he clenched
And from its watry soil
Uptore the poplar trunk.
Then off he shook the clotted earth,
And broke away the head
And boughs and lesser roots,
And lifting it aloft
Wielded with able sway the massy club.
“Now for this child of Hell!” quoth Thalaba,
“Belike he shall exchange to day
“His dainty Paradise
“For other dwelling, and the fruit
“Of Zaccoum, cursed tree.”
With that the youth and Arab maid
Towards the garden centre past.
It chanced that Aloadin had convoked
The garden-habitants,
And with the assembled throng
Oneiza mingled, and the appointed youth.
Unmarked they mingled, or if one
With busier finger to his neighbour notes
The quivered Maid, “haply,” he says,
“Some daughter of the Homerites,
“Or one who yet remembers with delight
“Her native tents of Himiar!” “Nay!” rejoins
His comrade, “a love-pageant! for the man
“Mimics with that fierce eye and knotty club
“Some savage lion-tamer, she forsooth
“Must play the heroine of the years of old!”
Radiant with gems upon his throne of gold
Aloadin sate.
O’er the Sorcerer’s head
Hovered a Bird, and in the fragrant air
Waved his winnowing wings,
A living canopy.
Large as the plumeless Cassowar
Was that o’ershadowing Bird;
So huge his talons, in their grasp
The Eagle would have hung a helpless prey.
His beak was iron, and his plumes
Glittered like burnished gold,
And his eyes glowed, as tho’ an inward fire
Shone thro’ a diamond orb.
The blinded multitude
Adored the Sorcerer,
And bent the knee before him,
And shouted out his praise,
“Mighty art thou, the Bestower of joy,
“The Lord of Paradise!”
Aloadin waved his hand,
In idolizing reverence
Moveless they stood and mute.
“Children of Earth,” he cried,
“Whom I have guided here
“By easier passage than the gate of Death,
“The infidel Sultan to whose lands
“My mountains reach their roots,
“Blasphemes and threatens me.
“Strong are his armies, many are his guards,
“Yet may a dagger find him.
“Children of Earth, I tempt you not
“With the vain promise of a bliss unseen,
“With tales of a hereafter Heaven
“Whence never Traveller hath returned!
“Have ye not tasted of the cup of joy,
“That in these groves of happiness
“For ever over-mantling tempts
“The ever-thirsty lip?
“Who is there here that by a deed
“Of danger will deserve
“The eternal joys of actual Paradise?
“I!” Thalaba exclaimed,
And springing forward, on the Sorcerer’s head
He dashed the knotty club.
He fell not, tho’ the force
Shattered his skull; nor flowed the blood.
For by some hellish talisman
His life imprisoned still
Dwelt in the body. The astonished crowd
Stand motionless with fear, and wait
Immediate vengeance from the wrath of Heaven.
And lo! the Bird... the monster Bird
Soars up... then pounces down
To seize on Thalaba!
Now Oneiza, bend the bow,
Now draw the arrow home!
It fled, the arrow from Oneiza’s hand,
It pierced the monster Bird,
It broke the Talisman.
Then darkness covered all,...
Earth shook, Heaven thundered, and amid the yells
Of Spirits accursed, destroyed
The Paradise of Sin.
At last the earth was still;
The yelling of the Demons ceased;
Opening the wreck and ruin to their sight
The darkness rolled away. Alone in life
Amid the desolation and the dead
Stood the Destroyer and the Arabian Maid.
They looked around, the rocks were rent,
The path was open, late by magic closed.
Awe-struck and silent down the stony glen
They wound their thoughtful way.
Amid the vale below
Tents rose, and streamers played
And javelins sparkled in the sun,
And multitudes encamped
Swarmed, far as eye could follow, o’er the plain.
There in his war pavilion sate
In council with his Chiefs
The Sultan of the Land.
Before his presence there a Captain led
Oneiza and the appointed Youth.
“Obedient to our Lord’s command,” said he,
“We past towards the mountains, and began
“The ascending strait; when suddenly Earth shook,
“And darkness like the midnight fell around,
“And fire and thunder came from Heaven
“As tho’ the Retribution day were come.
“After the terror ceased, and when with hearts
“Somewhat assured, again we ventured on,
“This youth and woman met us on the way.
“They told us that from Aloadin’s haunt
“They came on whom the judgement-stroke has fallen;
“He and his sinful Paradise at once
“Destroyed by them, the agents they of Heaven.
“Therefore I brought them hither, to re
peat
“The tale before thy presence; that as search
“Shall prove it false or faithful, to their merit
“Thou mayest reward them.”
“Be it done to us,”
Thalaba answered, “as the truth shall prove!”
The Sultan while he spake
“Fixed on him the proud eye of sovereignty;
“If thou hast played with us,
“By Allah and by Ali, Death shall seal
“The lying lips for ever! if the thing
“Be as thou sayest it, Arab, thou shalt stand
“Next to ourself!”...
And hark! the cry
The lengthening cry, the increasing shout
Of joyful multitudes!
Breathless and panting to the tent
The bearer of good tidings comes,
“O Sultan, live for ever! be thy foes
“Like Aloadin all!
“The wrath of God hath smitten him.”
Joy at the welcome tale
Shone in the Sultan’s cheek
“Array the Arab in the robe
“Of honour,” he exclaimed,
“And place a chain of gold around his neck,
“And bind around his brow the diadem,
“And mount him on my steed of state,
“And lead him thro’ the camp,
“And let the Heralds go before and cry
“Thus shall the Sultan reward
“The man who serves him well!”
Then in the purple robe
They vested Thalaba.
And hung around his neck the golden chain,
And bound his forehead with the diadem,
And on the royal steed
They led him thro’ the camp,
And Heralds went before and cried
“Thus shall the Sultan reward
“The man who serves him well!”
When from the pomp of triumph
And presence of the King
Thalaba sought the tent allotted him,
Thoughtful the Arabian Maid beheld
His animated eye,
His cheek inflamed with pride.
“Oneiza!” cried the youth,
“The King hath done according to his word,
“And made me in the land
“Next to himself be named!...
“But why that serious melancholy smile?
“Oneiza when I heard the voice that gave me
“Honour, and wealth, and fame, the instant thought
“Arose to fill my joy, that thou wouldest hear
“The tidings, and be happy.”
Complete Poetical Works of Robert Southey Page 105