252 SOME FAMOUS GARDENS 



The spacious Pleasaunce shows on either hand 



Dark verdant banks of various foliage 



Cooling the eyes and quieting the heart 



With parterres interspersed, and rose-thickets, 



And sheets of fiery Indian marigolds, 



Moon-flowers, and shell-flowers ; crimson panoply 



Of the silk-cottons, and soft lilac light 



Where sunbeams sift through Bougainvilliers ; 



Pink oleander-sprays you mark, fig-blooms, 



Stars of the champak, tulip-cups, and spikes 



Of silver-studded aloes, with red gold 



Of peacock-bushes, and fair deadly bells 



Of white datura. What most holds the eye, 



Leading it onward towards the sight of sights, 



Is yon black avenue of thuja-trees 



With cypress intermixed, ranged, all the way, 



On either border of the broad paved path, 



Like sentinels of honour. From the gate 



Straight to the threshold of the Taj-Mahal 



Those trees of mourning marshall you ! Between 



Gleams the paved way, laid smooth in slabs of white 



River-like running through the banks of green ; 



And, on this middle pavement all its length 



Wan water lies entanked, its crystal face 



Rippled with gliding fish, and lotus-leaves 



By the wind rocked, and rain of fountain-drop.-, ; 



For all its length jets of thin silver dart 



Into the Blue, and sparkle back to the Blue 



Reflected in those marble-margined pools. 



Led thus by sombre cypresses, and lines 



Of dancing water-jets, and lilied tanks, 



And glistering garden-causeway, the gaze lights 



