Page:Oriental Sketches Dramatic Sketches and Tales.pdf/211

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MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.


ADDRESS,

Spoken at the Opening of the Cawnpore Theatre,*[1] October 20, 1829.

    Where late a jungle spread its tangled dells,
And panthers lurked within the forest's cells;
Where still in troops the famished jackalls prowl,
And the wolf bays the moon with dismal howl;
Where mid barbaric pomp a Satrap bore
Tyrannic sway along the Ganges' shore,
And the adjacent city only rang
With the deep dhole, or harsher cymbal's clang,
And native crowds beheld with fierce delight
On the red plain the sanguinary fight
Of savage beasts, whose worse than brutal sport
Formed the amusement of an Eastern Court;

  1. * An elegant building of the Roman Doric order, erected by subscription, from the design, and under the direction of Lieut. Burt, Engineers.