Of the Tree of Life on Himakoot,
Majestic forth they flow to purify mankind.
5.
Toward this Lake, above the nether sphere,
The living Bark, with angel eye,
Directs its course along the obedient sky.
Kehama hath not yet dominion here;
And till the dreaded hour,
When Indra by the Rajah shall be driven
Dethron’d from Heaven,
Here may Ladurlad rest beyond his power.
The living Bark alights; the Glendoveer
Then lays Ladurlad by the blessed Lake;...
O happy Sire, and yet more happy Daughter!
The etherial gales his agony aslake,
His daughter’s tears are on his cheek,
His hand is in the water;
The innocent man, the man opprest,
Oh joy!... hath found a place of rest
Beyond Kehama’s sway,
His curse extends not here; his pains have past away.
6.
O happy Sire, and happy Daughter!
Ye on the banks of that celestial water
Your resting place and sanctuary have found.
What! hath not then their mortal taint defil’d
The sacred solitary ground?
Vain thought!... the Holy Valley smil’d
Receiving such a sire and child;
Ganges, who seem’d asleep to lie,
Beheld them with benignant eye,
And rippled round melodiously,
And roll’d her little waves, to meet
And welcome their beloved feet.
The gales of Swerga thither fled,
And heavenly odours there were shed
About, below, and overhead;
And Earth, rejoicing in their tread,
Hath built them up a blooming Bower,
Where every amaranthine flower
Its deathless blossom interweaves
With bright and undecaying leaves.
7.
Three happy beings are there here,
The Sire, the Maid, the Glendoveer.
A fourth approaches,...who is this
That enters in the Bower of Bliss?
No form so fair might painter find
Among the daughters of mankind;
For death her beauties hath refin’d,
And unto her a form hath given,
Fram’d of the elements of Heaven;
Pure dwelling-place for perfect mind.
She stood and gaz’d on sire and child;
Her tongue not yet had power to speak,
The tears were streaming down her cheek
And when those tears her sight beguil’d,
And still her faultering accents fail’d,
The Spirit, mute and motionless,
Spread out her arms for the caress,
Made still and silent with excess
Of love and painful happiness.
8.
The Maid that lovely form survey’d;
Wistful she gaz’d, and knew her not;
But Nature to her heart convey’d
A sudden thrill, a startling thought,
A feeling many a year forgot,
Now like a dream anew recurring,
As if again in every vein
Her mother’s milk was stirring.
With straining neck and earnest eye
She stretch’d her hands imploringly,
As if she fain would have her nigh,
Yet fear’d to meet the wish’d embrace,
At once with love and awe opprest,
Not so, Ladurlad; he could trace,
Though brighten’d with angelic grace,
His own Yedillian’s earthly face;
He ran and held her to his breast!
Oh joy above all joys of Heaven,
By Death alone to others given,
This moment hath to him restor’d
The early-lost, the long-deplor’d.
9.
They sin who tell us love can die.
With life all other passions fly,
All others are but vanity.
In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell,
Nor Avarice in the vaults of Hell;
Earthly these passions of the Earth,
They perish where they have their birth;
But Love is indestructible.
Its holy flame for ever burneth,
From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth
Too oft on Earth a troubled guest,
At times deceiv’d, at times opprest,
It here is tried and purified,
Then hath in Heaven its perfect rest:
It soweth here with toil and care,
But the harvest-time of Love is there.
Oh! when a Mother meets on high
The Babe she lost in infancy,
Hath she not then, for pains and fears,
The day of woe, the watchful night,
For all her sorrow, all her tears,
An over-payment of delight!
10.
A blessed family is this
Assembled in the Bower of Bliss!
Strange woe, Ladurlad, hath been thine,
And pangs beyond all human measure,
And thy reward is now divine,
A foretaste of eternal pleasure.
He knew indeed there was a day
When all these joys would pass away,
And he must quit this blest abode;
And, taking up again the spell,
Groan underneath the baleful load,
And wander o’er the world again
Most wretched of the sons of men:
Yet was this brief repose, as when
A traveller in the Arabian sands,
Half-fainting on his sultry road,
Hath reach’d the water-place at last;
And resting there beside the Well,
Thinks of the perils he has past,
And gazes o’er the unbounded plain,
The plain which must be travers’d still,
And drinks,.. yet cannot drink his fill;
Then girds his patient loins again.
So to Ladurlad now was given
New strength, and confidence in Heaven,
And hope, and faith invincible.
For often would Ereenia tell
Of what in elder days befell,
When other Tyrants, in their might,
Usurp’d dominion o’er the earth;
And Veeshnoo took a human birth,
Deliverer of the Sons of men;
And slew the huge Ermaccasen,
And piece-meal rent, with lion force,
Errenen’s accursed corse,
And humbled Baly in his pride
And when the Giant Ravanen
Had borne triumphant, from his side,
Sita, the earth-born God’s beloved bride,
Then, from his island-kingdom, laugh’d to scorn
The insulted husband, and his power defied;
How to revenge the wrong in wrath he hied,
Bridging the sea before his dreadful way,
And met the hundred-headed foe,
And dealt him the unerring blow;
By Brama’s hand the righteous lance was given,
And by that arm immortal driven,
It laid the mighty Tyrant low;
And Earth and Ocean, and high Heaven,
Rejoiced to see his overthrow.
Oh! doubt not thou, Yedillian cried,
Such fate Kehama will betide;
For there are Gods who look below....
Seeva, the Avenger, is not blind,
Nor Veeshnoo careless for mankind.
11.
Thus was Ladurlad’s soul imbued
With hope and holy fortitude;
And Child and Sire, with pious mind
Alike resolv’d, alike resign’d,
Look’d onward to the evil day:
>
Faith was their comfort, Faith their stay;
They trusted woe would pass away,
And Tyranny would sink subdued,
And Evil yield to Good.
12.
Lovely wert thou, O Flower of Earth!
Above all flowers of mortal birth;
But foster’d in this blissful bower
From day to day, and hour to hour,
Lovelier grew the lovely flower,
O blessed, blessed company!
When men and heavenly spirits greet,
And they whom Death had severed meet,
And hold again communion sweet;...
O blessed, blessed company!
The Sun, careering round the sky,
Beheld them with rejoicing eye,
And bade his willing Charioteer
Relax their speed as they drew near;
Arounin check’d the rainbow reins,
The seven green coursers shook their manes,
And brighter rays around them threw;
The Car of glory in their view
More radiant, more resplendent grew;
And Surya, through his veil of light,
Beheld the Bower, and blest the sight.
The Lord of Night, as he sail’d by,
Stay’d his pearly boat on high;
And, while around the blissful Bower
He bade the softest moonlight flow,
Lingered to see that earthly flower,
Forgetful of his dragon foe,
Who, mindful of their ancient feud,
With open jaws of rage pursued.
There all good Spirits of the air,
Suras and Devetas repair,
Aloft they love to hover there
And view the flower of mortal birth,
Here, for her innocence and worth,
Transplanted from the fields of earth;...
And him who, on the dreadful day
When Heaven was fill’d with consternation,
And Indra trembled with dismay,
And, for the sounds of joy and mirth,.
Woe was heard and lamentation,
Defied the Rajah in his pride,
Though all in Heaven and Earth beside
Stood mute in dolorous expectation;
And, rushing forward in that hour,
Saved the Swerga from his power.
Grateful for this they hover nigh;
And bless the blessed company.
13.
One God alone, with wanton eye,
Beheld them in their bower;
O ye, he cried, who have defied
The Rajah, will ye mock my power?
’Twas Camdeo riding on his lory,
’Twas the immortal youth of Love;
If men below and Gods above,
Subject alike, quoth he, have felt these darts,
Shall ye alone, of all in story,
Boast impenetrable hearts?
Hover here, my gentle lory,
Gently hover, while I see
To whom hath Fate decreed the glory,
To the Glendoveer or me.
14.
Then, in the dewy evening sky,
The bird of gorgeous plumery
Pois’d his wings and hover’d nigh;
It chanced at that delightful hour
Kailyal sate before the Bower,
On the green bank with amaranth sweet,
Where Ganges warbled at her feet.
Ereenia there, before the Maid,
His sails of ocean-blue displayed;
And sportive in her sight,
Mov’d slowly o’er the lake with gliding flight;
Anon, with sudden stroke and strong,
In rapid course careering, swept along;
Now shooting downward from his heavenly height,
Plunged in the deep below,
Then rising, soar’d again,
And shook the sparkling waters off like rain,
And hovering o’er the silver surface hung.
At him young Camdeo bent the bow;
With living bees the bow was strung,
The fatal bow of sugar-cane,
And flowers which would inflame the heart
With their petals barb’d the dart.
15.
The shaft, unerringly addrest,
Unerring flew, and smote Ereenia’s breast.
Ah, Wanton! cried the Glendoveer,
Go aim at idler hearts,
Thy skill is baffled here!
A deeper love I bear that Maid divine,
Sprung from a higher will,
A holier power than thine!
A second shaft, while thus Ereenia cried,
Had Camdeo aim’d at Kailyal’s side,
But, lo! the Bees which strung his bow
Broke off, and took their flight.
To that sweet Flower of earth they wing their way,
Around her raven tresses play,
And buzz about her with delight,
As if, with that melodious sound,
They strove to pay their willing duty
To mortal purity and beauty.
Ah, Wanton! cried the Glendoveer,
No power hast thou for mischief here!
Chuse thou some idler breast,
For these are proof, by nobler thoughts possest.
Go, to thy plains of Matra go,
And string again thy broken bow!
16.
Rightly Ereenia spake; and ill had thoughts
Of earthly love beseem’d the sanctuary
Where Kailyal had been wafted, that the Soul
Of her dead mother there might strengthen her,
Feeding her with the milk of heavenly lore;
And influxes of Heaven imbue her heart
With hope and faith, and holy fortitude,
Against the evil day. Here rest a while
In peace, O Father! mark’d for misery
Above all sons of men; O Daughter! doom’d.
For sufferings and for trials above all
Of women;... yet both favour’d, both belov’d
By all good Powers, here rest a while in peace.
XI. THE ENCHANTRESS.
1.
When from the sword, by arm angelic driven,
Foul Arvalan fled howling, wild in pain,
His thin essential spirit, rent and riven
With wounds, united soon and heal’d again;
Backward the accursed turn’d his eye in flight,
Remindful of revengeful thoughts even then,
And saw where, gliding through the evening light,
The Ship of Heaven sail’d upward through the sky,
Then, like a meteor, vanish’d from his sight.
Where should he follow? vainly might he try
To trace through trackless air its rapid course;
Nor dar’d he that angelic arm defy,
Still sore and writhing from its dreaded force.
2.
Should he the lust of vengeance lay aside?
Too long had Arvalan in ill been train’d;
Nurst up in power and tyranny and pride,
His soul the ignominious thought disdain’d.
Or to his mighty father should he go,
Complaining of defeature twice sustain’d,
And ask new powers to meet the immortal foe?...
Repulse he fear’d not, but he fear’d rebuke,
And sham’d to tell him of his overthrow.
There dwelt a dread Enchantress in a nook
Obscure; old help-mate she to him had been,
Lending her aid in many a secret sin;
And there, for counsel, now his way he took.
3.
She was a woman whose unlovely youth,
Even like a cankered rose, which none will cull,
Had withered on the stalk; her heart was full
Of passions which had found no natural scope,
Feelings whic
h there had grown but ripened not;
Desires unsatisfied, abortive hope,
Repinings which provoked vindictive thought,
These restless elements for ever wrought,
Fermenting in her with perpetual stir,
And thus her spirit to all evil mov’d;
She hated men because they lov’d not her,
And hated women because they were lov’d.
And thus, in wrath and hatred and despair,
She tempted Hell to tempt her; and resign’d
Her body to the Demons of the Air,
Wicked and wanton fiends who, where they will,
Wander abroad, still seeking to do ill,
And take whatever vacant form they find,
Carcase of man or beast, that life hath left;
Foul instrument for them of fouler mind.
To these the Witch her wretched body gave,
So they would wreak her vengeance, on mankind,,
She thus at once their mistress and their slave;
And they, to do such service nothing loth,
Obeyed her bidding, slaves and masters both.
4.
So, from this cursed intercourse she caught
Contagious power of mischief, and was taught
Such secrets as are damnable to guess.
Is there a child whose little lovely ways
Might with all hearts,... on whom his parents gaze
Till they shed tears of joy and tenderness?
Oh! hide him from that Witch’s withering sight!
Oh! hide him from the eye of Lorrinite!
Her look hath crippling in it, and her curse
All plagues which on mortality can light;
Death is his doom if she behold,... or worse,...
Diseases loathsome and incurable,
And inward sufferings that no tongue can tell.
Woe was to him, on whom that eye of hate
Was bent; for, certain as the stroke of Fate,
It did its mortal wort; nor human arts
Could save the unhappy wretch, her chosen prey;
For gazing, she consum’d his vital parts,
Eating his very core of life away.
The wine which from yon wounded palm on high
Fills yonder gourd, as slowly it distills,
Grows sour at once if Lorrinite pass by.
The deadliest worm, from which, all creatures fly,
Fled from the deadlier venom of her eye;
The babe unborn, within its mother’s womb,
Started and trembled when the Witch came nigh,
Complete Poetical Works of Robert Southey Page 147