All that He wills is right, and doubt not thou, His righteous will in all things must be done. VII. THE SWERGA. 1. THEN in the Ship of Heaven, Ereenia laid The Ship of Heaven, instinct with thought, display'd The clouds of morn along its path divide; 2. That Bark, in shape, was like the furrow'd shell An Angel's head, with visual eye, Through trackless space, directs its chosen way; Nor aid of wing, nor foot, nor fin, Requires to voyage o'er the obedient sky. Smooth as the swan when not a breeze at even Disturbs the surface of the silver stream, Through air and sunshine sails the Ship of Heaven. 3. Recumbent there the Maiden glides along How swift she feels not, though the swiftest wind Feeling no fear; for that etherial air For sure she deem'd her mortal part was o'er, 4. Daughter of Earth! therein thou deem'st aright; Rise on the raptured Poet's inward eye. The immortal Youth of Heaven who floated by, Even such as that divinest form shall be Low thought, nor base desire, nor wasting care, 5. The wings of Eagle or of Cherubim Angelic power and dignity and grace Their colour like the winter's moonless sky, When all the stars of midnight's canopy Shine forth; or like the azure deep at noon, Reflecting back to heaven a brighter blue. Such was their tint when closed, but when outspread, The permeating light Shed through their substance thin a varying hue; Now bright as when the rose, Beauteous as fragrant, gives to scent and sight Or ruby when with deepest red it glows; Kindles as it receives the rising ray, Proclaims the presence of the Power divine. 6. Thus glorious were the wings The gorgeous beauties that they gave to view; Through the broad membrane branched a pliant bone, Spreading like fibres from their parent stem, Its veins like interwoven silver shone, Or as the chaster hue Of pearls that grace some Sultan's diadem. Now with slow stroke and strong behold him smite The buoyant air, and now in gentler flight, On motionless wing expanded, shoot along. 7. Through air and sunshine sails the Ship of Heaven; The gross and heavy atmosphere of earth; The Maid of mortal birth 'At every breath a new delight inhales. And now toward its port the Ship of Heaven, Swift as a falling meteor, shapes its flight, Yet gently as the dews of night that gem, And do not bend the hare-bell's slenderest stem. Daughter of Earth, Ereenia cried, alight; This is thy place of rest, the Swerga this, Lo, here my Bower of bliss! 8. He furl'd his azure wings, which round him fold Graceful as robes of Grecian chief of old. |