AL AARAAF.
81
[1]And Valisnerian lotus thither flown
From struggling with the waters of the Rhone:
[2]And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante!
Isola d'oro!—Fior di Levante!
[3]And the Nelumbo bud that floats for ever
With Indian Cupid down the holy river—
Fair flowers, and fairy! to whose care is given
[4]To bear the Goddess' song, in odors, up to Heaven:
"Spirit! that dwellest where,
In the deep sky.
The terrible and fair,
In beauty vie!
Beyond the line of blue—
The boundary of the star
Which turneth at the view
Of thy barrier and thy bar—
Of the barrier overgone
By the comets who were cast
From their pride, and from their throne
To be drudges till the last—
To be carriers of fire
(The red fire of their heart)
With speed that may not tire
- ↑ There is found, in the Rhone, a beautiful lily of the Valisnerian kind. Its stem will stretch to the length of three or four feet—thus preserving its head above water in the swelling of the river.
- ↑ The Hyacinth.
- ↑ It is a fiction of the Indians, that Cupid was first seen floating in one of these down the river Ganges—and that he still loves the cradle of his childhood.
- ↑ And golden vials full of odors which are the prayers of the saints.—Rev. St. John.
