THALABA THE DESTROYER.

THE FIRST BOOK.

Worse and worse, young Orphane, be thy payne.

If thou due vengeance doe forbeare,

Till guiltie blood her guerdon do obtayne.

Faery Queen, b. 2, can. 1.

1.

How beautiful is night!

A dewy freshness fills the silent air;
No mist obscures, nor cloud nor speck nor stain
Breaks the serene of heaven :

In full-orbed glory yonder Moon divine
Rolls through the dark-blue depths.
Beneath her steady ray

The desert-circle spreads,

Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky.
How beautiful is night!

2.

Who, at this untimely hour,
Wanders o'er the desert sands?
No station is in view,

Nor palm-grove, islanded amid the waste.
The mother and her child,

The widowed mother and the fatherless boy,—
They, at this untimely hour,

Wander o'er the desert sands.

3.

Alas! the setting sun
Saw Zeinab in her bliss,
Hodeirah's wife beloved.
Alas! the wife beloved,

The fruitful mother late,

Whom when the daughters of Arabia named,
They wished their lot like hers,—
She wanders o'er the desert sands
A wretched widow now;

The fruitful mother of so fair a race,
With only one preserved,

She wanders o'er the wilderness.

4.

No tear relieved the burden of her heart; Stunned with the heavy woe, she felt like one Half wakened from a midnight dream of blood. But sometimes, when the boy

Would wet her hand with tears,

And, iooking up to her fixed countenance, Sob out the name of Mother! then she groaned. At length collecting, Zeinab turned her eyes To heaven, and praised the Lord: "He gave, he takes away!"

66

"Good is he?" quoth the boy:

Why are my brethren and my sisters slain?
Why is my father killed?

Did ever we neglect our prayers,
Or ever lift a hand unclean to Heaven?
Did ever stranger from our tent
Unwelcomed turn away?

Mother, He is not good!"

6.

Then Zeinab beat her breast in agony,

"O God, forgive the child!

He knows not what he says;

Thou know'st I did not teach him thoughts like these ;

O Prophet, pardon him!"

7.

She had not wept till that assuaging prayer; The fountains of her grief were opened then, And tears relieved her heart.

She raised her swimming eyes to heaven,
"Allah, thy will be done!

Beneath the dispensations of that will
I groan, but murmur not.

A day will come when all things that are dark Will be made clear: then shall I know, O Lord! Why, in thy mercy, thou hast stricken me;

Then see and understand what now
My heart believes and feels."

8.

Young Thalaba in silence heard reproof; His brow in manly frowns was knit, With manly thoughts his heart was full. "Tell me who slew my father," cried the boy. Zeinab replied and said,

"I knew not that there lived thy father's foe. The blessings of the poor for him

Went daily up to Heaven;

In distant lands the traveller told his praise: I did not think there lived

Hodeirah's enemy."

9.

"But I will hunt him through the world!"
Young Thalaba exclaimed.

"Already I can bend my father's bow;
Soon will my arm have strength

To drive the arrow-feathers to his heart."