With long-drawn lips of insolent mockery, Was like a sulphur fire Mingling with darkness ere its flames expire. Ladurlad knew him well: enraged to see He stooped and lifted from the ground The lips of scorn their mockery-laugh renewed, Fell in white ashes from his hold, but he The burning stream of radiance nothing harmed him: Anon the Spirit waved a second hand; Down rushed the obedient whirlwind from the sky, Scooped up the sand like smoke, and from on high Shed the hot shower upon Ladurlad's head. Where'er he turns, the accurséd Hand is there; East, West, and North, and South, on every Side The Hand accursed waves in air to guide The dizzying storm; ears, nostrils, eyes, and mouth It fills and chokes, and, clogging every pore, Taught him new torments might be yet in store. Where shall he turn to fly? behold his house In flames! uprooted lies the marriage bower, The Goddess buried by the sandy shower. Blindly, with staggering step, he reels about, And still the accurséd Hand pursued, And still the lips of scorn their mockery-laugh renewed. What, Arvalan! hast thou so soon forgot The grasp of Pollear? Wilt thou still defy The righteous Powers of Heaven? or know'st thou not That there are yet superior Powers on high, Son of the Wicked P-Lo, in rapid flight, Ereenia hastens from the ethereal height; Bright is the sword celestial in his hand, Like lightning in its path athwart the sky. He comes and drives, with angel-arm, the blow. Oft have the Asuras, in the wars of Heaven, Felt that keen sword by arm angelic driven, And fled before it from the fields of light. Thrice through the vulnerable shade The Glendoveer impels the griding blade. The wicked Shade flies howling from his foe. So let that Spirit foul Fly, and for impotence of anger, howl, Writhing with pain, and o'er his wounds deplore; Worse punishment hath Arvalan deserved, Not now the Glendoveer pursues his flight. The astonished father by the happy Maid, X. MOUNT MERU. SWIFT through the sky the vessel of the Suras Sails up the fields of ether like an Angel. Rich is the freight, O Vessel, that thou bearest! Beauty and Virtue, Fatherly cares and filial veneration, Hearts which are proved and strengthened by affliction, All with which Nature halloweth her daughters, Ship of the Gods! how richly art thou laden! Proud of the charge, thou voyagest rejoicing. Clouds float around to honour thee, and Evening Lingers in heaven. A Stream descends on Meru mountain; Her hands, too venturous Goddess, in her mirth, On Seeva's eyes, the light and life of Earth. Thereat the heart of the Universe stood still; The Elements ceased their influences: the Hours Stopped on the Eternal round; Motion and Breath, Time, Change, and Life and Death, In sudden trance oppressed, forgot their powers. A moment, and the dread eclipse was ended; But, at the thought of nature thus suspended, The sweat on Seeva's forehead stood, And Ganges thence upon the World descended, The Holy River, the Redeeming Flood. None hath seen its secret fountain; In light and clouds, it hath its mortal birth. As if it there would love to dwell From rock to rock, with shivering force rebounding, And in the watery air Suspends her halo-crowns of silver light. A mountain-valley in its blesséd breast Receives the stream, which there delights to lie, Untroubled and at rest, Beneath the untainted sky. There in a lovely lake it seems to sleep, Of the Tree of Life on Hemakoot, Directs its course along the obedient sky. |