POETRY. S^5 



Beneath th' usurper's frantic sceptre bow'd, 



How droop thy hallow'd vales, romantic Oude ! 



JBahar wears mournfully the servile chains ; 



And tyranny o'erwhelms fair Hoogley's plains. 



Ah, beauteous Cashmere*, love's enchanting vale 1 



What new Abdallah + shall thy woes bewail ? 



In vain thy snowy mountains, swelling round : 



JFor peace alone would guard the holy ground : 



Oh, once for thee the rosy-finger'd Hours 



Wove wreaths of joy in Pleasure's echoing bowers; 



Once round thy limpid stream and scented grove, 



The haunts of Fancy, Freedom loved to rove ; 



And, moulded by the hand of young Desire, 



Thy daughters shone amid the virgin choir : 



Not fair Circassia touch'dher blooming race 



With tints so tender of impassion'd grace, 



With all their glances wove such artless wiles, 



Or breath'd such brightness round their angel smiles. 



Ah ! at the tyrant's frown those beauties die ; 



Fled is the smile, and sunk the speaking eye. : 



Nor harp nor carol warbles through the glade, 



Nor pensive love-notes soothe the plane-tree shade j 



But the steel'd savage revels in thy woes, 



And round his temples twines thy brightest rose. 



Science and Learning deck thy scenes uo morCj 



But heavily some safer spot explore : 



Yet not to Varanasi's J loved retreat ' 



The exiles bend their melancholy feet : 



There, too, the ruffian spear and step profane, 



From shrines long clferish'd, scare the sister traio. 



Through every shade the horror rolls around, 



And war-worn India bleeds at every wound : 



Indignant Learning droops her blasted head, 



Her noblest worthies mingled with the dead : 



No more to awful thought the soul aspires, 



But grief extinguishes the Muse's fires : 



No more, while all her listening groves rejoice, 



I'^nraptur'd wisdom lifts th' instructing voice; 



Nor Knowieciije gives her philosophic ey^ 



To read the blazing wonders of the sky; 



Unmark'd the stars of morn or evening glow, 



And suns unnotic'd arch the showery bow : 



A dumb despair weighs down the Arts sublime, 



And Taste and Genius fly the saddcji'd clime. 



* The Vale of Cushmere is the favourite theme of profuse pamcgyric with a" 

 ^Eastern authors and travellers. 



t A celebrated IV-rsian poet, who «Jied A. D, 1520. 

 1 An ancient name of Btnares, 



IH 



