Baly -
1.
This is the appointed night,
The night of joy and consecrated mirth,
When from his judgment-seat in Padalon,
By Yamen's throne,
Baly goes forth, that he may walk the Earth
Unseen, and hear his name
Still hymn'd and honor'd by the grateful voice
Of human-kind, and in his fame rejoice.
Therefore, from door to door, and street to street,
With willing feet,
Shaking their firebands, the glad children run;
Baly! great Baly! they acclaim;
Where'er they run they bear the mighty name;
Where'er they meet,
Baly! great Baly! still their choral tongues repeat.
Therefore at every door the votive flame
Through pendent lanterns sheds its painted light,
And rockets, hissing upward through the sky,
Fall like a shower of stars
From Heaven's black canopy.
Therefore, on yonder mountain's templed height,
The brazen caldron blazes through the night.
Huge as a Ship that travels the main sea
Is that capacious brass; its wick as tall
As is the mast of some great admiral.
Ten thousand votaries bring
Camphor and ghee to feed the sacred flame;
And while, through regions round, the nations see
Its fiery pillar curling high in heaven,
Baly! great Baly! they exclaim,
Forever hallowed be his blessed name!
Honor and praise to him for evermore be given.
2.
Why art not thou among the festive throng,
Baly, O righteous Judge! to hear thy fame?
Still, as of yore, with pageantry and song,
The glowing streets along,
They celebrate thy name;
Baly! great Baly! still
The grateful habitants of Earth acclaim,
Baly! great Baly! still
The ringing walls and echoing towers proclaim.
From yonder mountain the portentous flame
Still blazes to the nations, as before;
All things appear to human eyes the same,
As perfect as of yore;
To human eyes, — but how unlike to thine!
Thine, which were wont to see
The Company divine,
That with their presence came to honor thee!
For all the blessed ones of mortal birth
Who have been clothed with immortality,
From the eight corners of the Earth,
From the Seven Worlds assembling, all
Wont to attend thy solemn festival.
Then did thine eyes behold
The wide air peopled with that glorious train;
Now mayst thou seek the blessed ones in vain,
For Earth and Air are now beneath the Rajah's reign.
3.
Therefore the righteous Judge hath walk'd the Earth
In sorrow and in solitude to-night
The sound of human mirth
To him is no delight;
He turns away from that ungrateful sight,
Hallowed not now by visitants divine,
And there he bends his melancholy way,
Where, in yon full-orb'd Moon's refulgent light,
The Golden Towers of his old City shine
Above the silver sea. The ancient Chief
There bent his way in grief,
As if sad thoughts indulged would work their own relief.
4.
There he beholds, upon the sand,
A lovely Maiden in the moonlight stand.
The land-breeze lifts her locks of jet;
The waves around her polish'd ankles play,
Her bosom with the salt sea-spray is wet;
Her arms are cross'd, unconsciously, to fold
That bosom from the cold,
While, statue-like, she seems her watch to keep,
Gazing intently on the restless deep.
5.
Seven miserable days had Kailyal there,
From earliest dawn till evening, watch'd the deep;
Six nights, within the chamber of the rock,
Had laid her down, and found in prayer
That comfort which she sought in vain from sleep
But when the seventh night came,
Never should she behold her father more,
The wretched Maiden said, in her despair;
Yet would not quit the shore,
Nor turn her eyes one moment from the sea:
Never before
Had Kailyal watch'd it so impatiently,
Never so eagerly had hoped before,
As now, when she believed, and said, all hope was o'er.
6.
Beholding her, how beautiful she stood,
In that wild solitude,
Baly from his invisibility
Had issued then, to know her cause of woe;
But that in the air beside her, he espied
Two Powers of Evil for her hurt allied,
Foul Arvalan and dreadful Lorrinite.
Walking in darkness him they could not see,
And marking with what demon-like delight
They kept their innocent prey in sight,
He waits, expecting what the end may be.
7.
She starts; for lo! where, floating many a rood,
A Monster, hugest of the Ocean brood,
Weltering and lifeless, drifts toward the shore.
Backward she starts in fear before the flood,
And, when the waves retreat,
They leave their hideous burden at her feet.
8.
She ventures to approach with timid tread;
She starts, and half draws back in fear,
Then stops, and stretches out her head,
To see if that huge Beast indeed be dead.
Now, growing bold, the Maid advances near,
Even to the margin of the ocean-flood.
Rightly she reads her Father's victory,
And lifts her joyous hands exultingly
To Heaven in gratitude.
Then, spreading them toward the Sea,
While pious tears bedim her streaming eyes,
Come! come! my Father, come to me;
Ereenia, come! she cries;
Lo! from the opening deep they rise,
And to Ladurlad's arms the happy Kailyal flies.
9.
She turn'd from him, to meet, with beating heart,
The Glendoveer's embrace.
Now turn to me, for mine thou art!
Foul Arvalan exclaim'd; his loathsome face
Came forth, and from the air,
In fleshly form, he burst.
Always in horror and despair,
Had Kailyal seen that form and face accurs'd;
But yet so sharp a pang had ne'er
Shot with a thrill like death through all her frame,
As now when on her hour of joy the Spectre came.
10.
Vain is resistance now;
The fiendish laugh of Lorrinite is heard;
And at her dreadful word,
The Asuras once again appear,
And seize Ladurlad and the Glendoveer.
11.
Hold your accursed hands!
A voice exclaim'd, whose dread commands
Were fear'd through all the vaults of Padalon;
And there among them, in the midnight air;
The presence of the mighty Baly shone.
He, making manifest his mightiness,
Put forth on every side a hundred arms,
And seized the Sorceress; maugre all her charms,
Her and her fiendish ministers he caught
With force as uncontrollable as fate,
And that unhappy Soul, to whom
The Almighty Rajah's power availeth not
Living to avert, nor dead to mitigate,
His righteous doom.
12.
Help, help, Kehama! Father, help! he cried,
But Baly tarried not to abide
That mightier Power; with irresistible feet
He stamp'd and cleft the Earth; it open'd wide,
And gave him way to his own Judgment-seat.
Down, like a plummet, to the World below
He sunk, and bore his prey
To punishment deserved, and endless woe.
This is the appointed night,
The night of joy and consecrated mirth,
When from his judgment-seat in Padalon,
By Yamen's throne,
Baly goes forth, that he may walk the Earth
Unseen, and hear his name
Still hymn'd and honor'd by the grateful voice
Of human-kind, and in his fame rejoice.
Therefore, from door to door, and street to street,
With willing feet,
Shaking their firebands, the glad children run;
Baly! great Baly! they acclaim;
Where'er they run they bear the mighty name;
Where'er they meet,
Baly! great Baly! still their choral tongues repeat.
Therefore at every door the votive flame
Through pendent lanterns sheds its painted light,
And rockets, hissing upward through the sky,
Fall like a shower of stars
From Heaven's black canopy.
Therefore, on yonder mountain's templed height,
The brazen caldron blazes through the night.
Huge as a Ship that travels the main sea
Is that capacious brass; its wick as tall
As is the mast of some great admiral.
Ten thousand votaries bring
Camphor and ghee to feed the sacred flame;
And while, through regions round, the nations see
Its fiery pillar curling high in heaven,
Baly! great Baly! they exclaim,
Forever hallowed be his blessed name!
Honor and praise to him for evermore be given.
2.
Why art not thou among the festive throng,
Baly, O righteous Judge! to hear thy fame?
Still, as of yore, with pageantry and song,
The glowing streets along,
They celebrate thy name;
Baly! great Baly! still
The grateful habitants of Earth acclaim,
Baly! great Baly! still
The ringing walls and echoing towers proclaim.
From yonder mountain the portentous flame
Still blazes to the nations, as before;
All things appear to human eyes the same,
As perfect as of yore;
To human eyes, — but how unlike to thine!
Thine, which were wont to see
The Company divine,
That with their presence came to honor thee!
For all the blessed ones of mortal birth
Who have been clothed with immortality,
From the eight corners of the Earth,
From the Seven Worlds assembling, all
Wont to attend thy solemn festival.
Then did thine eyes behold
The wide air peopled with that glorious train;
Now mayst thou seek the blessed ones in vain,
For Earth and Air are now beneath the Rajah's reign.
3.
Therefore the righteous Judge hath walk'd the Earth
In sorrow and in solitude to-night
The sound of human mirth
To him is no delight;
He turns away from that ungrateful sight,
Hallowed not now by visitants divine,
And there he bends his melancholy way,
Where, in yon full-orb'd Moon's refulgent light,
The Golden Towers of his old City shine
Above the silver sea. The ancient Chief
There bent his way in grief,
As if sad thoughts indulged would work their own relief.
4.
There he beholds, upon the sand,
A lovely Maiden in the moonlight stand.
The land-breeze lifts her locks of jet;
The waves around her polish'd ankles play,
Her bosom with the salt sea-spray is wet;
Her arms are cross'd, unconsciously, to fold
That bosom from the cold,
While, statue-like, she seems her watch to keep,
Gazing intently on the restless deep.
5.
Seven miserable days had Kailyal there,
From earliest dawn till evening, watch'd the deep;
Six nights, within the chamber of the rock,
Had laid her down, and found in prayer
That comfort which she sought in vain from sleep
But when the seventh night came,
Never should she behold her father more,
The wretched Maiden said, in her despair;
Yet would not quit the shore,
Nor turn her eyes one moment from the sea:
Never before
Had Kailyal watch'd it so impatiently,
Never so eagerly had hoped before,
As now, when she believed, and said, all hope was o'er.
6.
Beholding her, how beautiful she stood,
In that wild solitude,
Baly from his invisibility
Had issued then, to know her cause of woe;
But that in the air beside her, he espied
Two Powers of Evil for her hurt allied,
Foul Arvalan and dreadful Lorrinite.
Walking in darkness him they could not see,
And marking with what demon-like delight
They kept their innocent prey in sight,
He waits, expecting what the end may be.
7.
She starts; for lo! where, floating many a rood,
A Monster, hugest of the Ocean brood,
Weltering and lifeless, drifts toward the shore.
Backward she starts in fear before the flood,
And, when the waves retreat,
They leave their hideous burden at her feet.
8.
She ventures to approach with timid tread;
She starts, and half draws back in fear,
Then stops, and stretches out her head,
To see if that huge Beast indeed be dead.
Now, growing bold, the Maid advances near,
Even to the margin of the ocean-flood.
Rightly she reads her Father's victory,
And lifts her joyous hands exultingly
To Heaven in gratitude.
Then, spreading them toward the Sea,
While pious tears bedim her streaming eyes,
Come! come! my Father, come to me;
Ereenia, come! she cries;
Lo! from the opening deep they rise,
And to Ladurlad's arms the happy Kailyal flies.
9.
She turn'd from him, to meet, with beating heart,
The Glendoveer's embrace.
Now turn to me, for mine thou art!
Foul Arvalan exclaim'd; his loathsome face
Came forth, and from the air,
In fleshly form, he burst.
Always in horror and despair,
Had Kailyal seen that form and face accurs'd;
But yet so sharp a pang had ne'er
Shot with a thrill like death through all her frame,
As now when on her hour of joy the Spectre came.
10.
Vain is resistance now;
The fiendish laugh of Lorrinite is heard;
And at her dreadful word,
The Asuras once again appear,
And seize Ladurlad and the Glendoveer.
11.
Hold your accursed hands!
A voice exclaim'd, whose dread commands
Were fear'd through all the vaults of Padalon;
And there among them, in the midnight air;
The presence of the mighty Baly shone.
He, making manifest his mightiness,
Put forth on every side a hundred arms,
And seized the Sorceress; maugre all her charms,
Her and her fiendish ministers he caught
With force as uncontrollable as fate,
And that unhappy Soul, to whom
The Almighty Rajah's power availeth not
Living to avert, nor dead to mitigate,
His righteous doom.
12.
Help, help, Kehama! Father, help! he cried,
But Baly tarried not to abide
That mightier Power; with irresistible feet
He stamp'd and cleft the Earth; it open'd wide,
And gave him way to his own Judgment-seat.
Down, like a plummet, to the World below
He sunk, and bore his prey
To punishment deserved, and endless woe.
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