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Then oh ! ye winds, gently your pinions move, 

 And speed in safety home the bark of love. 

 Brood, Halcyon, brood : thy sea-spell chaunt again, 

 And keep the mirror of the enchanted main, 

 Where his white wing the exulting tropic dips, 

 Calm as their hearts, and smiling as their lips. 



The charm prevails ! Hushed are the waves and still ; 

 The expanded sails light favouring zephyrs fill s 

 Wafting with motion scarce perceived ; and now 

 In rapture Irza from the vessel's prow 

 Gazed on an isle with verdure gay and bright, 

 Which seemed (so green it shone in solar light) 

 An emerald set in silver. Long her eyes 

 Dwelt on its rocks ; and " Oh ! dear friend," she cries, 

 And clasps Rosalvo's hand, — "admire with me 

 Yon isle, which rising crowns the silent sea ! 

 How bold those mossy cliffs, which guard the strand, 

 Like spires, and domes, and towers in fairy-land ! 

 How green the plains ! how balsam-fraught the breeze ! 

 How bend with golden fruit the loaded trees ; 

 While, fluttering midst their boughs in joyful notes, 

 Myriads of birds attune their warbling throats ! 

 Blooms all the ground with flowers ! and mark, oh ! mark 

 That giant palm, whose foliage broad and dark 

 Plays on the sun-clad rock ! — Beneath, a cave 

 Spreads wide its sparry mouth : while loosely wave 

 A thousand creepers, dyed with thousand stains, 

 Whose wreaths enrich the trees, and cloathe the plains. 

 Dear friend, how blest, if passed my life could be 

 In that fair isle, with God alone and thee, 

 Far from the world, from man and fiend secure, 

 No guilt to harm us, and no vice to lure ! 

 Bright round the virgin's shrine would blush and bloom 

 That world of flowers, which pour such rich perfume ; 

 And sweet yon caves repeat with mellowing swell 

 Eve's closing hymn, when chimed the vesper-bell." 



