Page:The Giaour, a fragment of a Turkish tale (IA giaourfragmentof01byro).pdf/25

13

On her fair cheek's unfading hue,
The young pomegranate's^[1] blossoms strew
Their bloom in blushes ever new—
Her hair in hyacinthine^[2] flow
When left to roll its folds below;
As midst her handmaids in the hall
She stood superior to them all,
Hath swept the marble where her feet
Gleamed whiter than the mountain sleet
Ere from the cloud that gave it birth,
It fell, and caught one stain of earth.
*******

Stern Hassan hath a journey ta'en
With twenty vassals in his train,
Each arm'd as best becomes a man
With arquebuss and ataghan;

1. An oriental simile, which may, perhaps, though fairly stolen, be deemed "plus Arabe qu'en Arabie."
2. Hyacinthine, in Arabic, "Sunbul," as common a thought in the eastern poets as it was among the Greeks.