But if the God forbear,

Unwilling yet the perilous strife to try,

Or shrinking from the dreadful Rajah's might,-
Weak as I am, O Father! even I
Stand forth in Siva's sight."

8.

"Trust thou in him whate'er betide,
And stand forth fearlessly!"

The Sire of Gods replied.

"All that He wills is right; and doubt not thou,

Howe'er our feeble scope

May fail us now,

of sight

His righteous will in all things must be done:
My blessing be upon thee, O my son!"

VII.

THE SWERGA.

1.

THEN, in the Ship of Heaven, Ereenia laid
The waking, wondering Maid:

The Ship of Heaven, instinct with thought, displayed
Its living sail, and glides along the sky.
On either side, in wavy tide,

The clouds of morn along its path divide; The Winds, who swept in wild career on high, Before its presence check their charmed force;

The Winds, that loitering lagged along their course,

Around the living Bark enamoured play, Swell underneath the sail, and sing before its way.

2.

That Bark, in shape, was like the furrowed shell Wherein the Sea-Nymphs to their parent-King, On festal day, their duteous offerings bring.

Its hue? Go, watch the last green light

Ere Evening yields the western sky to Night;
Or fix upon the Sun thy strenuous sight
Till thou hast reached its orb of chrysolite.
The sail, from end to end displayed,
Bent, like a rainbow, o'er the Maid.
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
On her aërial way;

How swift she feels not, though the swiftest wind
Had flagged in flight behind.

Motionless as a sleeping babe she lay,
And all serene in mind,

Feeling no fear; for that ethereal air

With such new life and joyance filled her heart, Fear could not enter there:

For sure she deemed her mortal part was o'er, And she was sailing to the heavenly shore; And that angelic form, who moved beside, Was some good Spirit sent to be her guide

4.

Daughter of Earth! therein thou deem'st aright;
And never yet did form more beautiful,
In dreams of night descending from on high,
Bless the religious Virgin's gifted sight,
Nor, like a vision of delight,

Rise on the raptured Poet's inward eye.
Of human form divine was he,

The immortal Youth of Heaven who floated by,
Even such as that divinest form shall be
In those blest stages of our onward race,
When no infirmity,

Low thought, nor base desire, nor wasting care,
Deface the semblance of our heavenly sire.

5.

The wings of Eagle or of Cherubim
Had seemed unworthy him;

Angelic power and dignity and grace Were in his glorious pennons; from the neck Down to the ancle reached their swelling web, Richer than robes of Tyrian dye, that deck Imperial Majesty;

Their color 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
A like delight; now like the juice that flows
From Douro's generous vine;

Or ruby, when with deepest red it glows;
Or as the morning clouds refulgent shine,
When, at forthcoming of the Lord of Day,
The Orient, like a shrine,

Kindles as it receives the rising ray,
And, heralding his way,

Proclaims the presence of the Power divine.

The

6.

Thus glorious were the wings
Of that celestial Spirit, as he went
Disporting through his native element.

Nor these alone

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:
Far, far beneath them lies

The gross and heavy atmosphere of earth;
And, with the Swerga gales,

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 harebell'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 furled his azure wings, which round him fold
Graceful as robes of Grecian chief of old.

The happy Kailyal knew not where to gaze:
Her
eyes around in joyful wonder roam,
Now turned upon the lovely Glendoveer,

Now on his heavenly home.

EREENIA.

Here, Maiden, rest in peace,