Page:Poems Davidson.djvu/41

Though music lulled each fear to sleep,
Or, like the night-wind o'er the deep,
Just waking love and calm delight,
Kindling Hope's watch-fire clear and bright—
For her, though Cashmere's roses twine
Together round. the parent vine;
And though to her, as Cashmere's star,
Knelt the once haughty Subahdar;⁶
Still, still; Amreta gazed unmoved,
Nor sighed, nor smiled, nor owned she loved!
But, like the Parian marble there,
So bright, so exquisitely fair,
She seemed by Nature famed to bless,
Rich in surpassing loveliness.
But never from those lips of red
A single syllable had fled,
Since Amir Khan first blessed the hour⁷
That placed Amreta in his bower.
Within that bower, 'mid twining roses,
Upon whose leaves the breeze reposes,
She sits unmoved, while round her flow
Strains of sweet music, sad and low;
Or now, in softer numbers breathing,
A song of love and sorrow: wreathing,
Such strains as in wild sweetness ran
Through the sad breast of Amir Khan!

He loved,—and O! he loved so well
That sorrow scarce dared break the spell;
Though oft Suspicion whispered near
One vague, one sadly boding fear,