Classic Poem

1.

When Thalaba from adoration rose,
The air was cool, the sky
With welcome clouds o'ercast,
Which soon came down in rain.
He lifted up his fever'd face to heaven,
And bared his head, and stretch'd his hands
To that delightful shower,
And felt the coolness permeate every limb,
Freshening his powers of life.

2.

A loud, quick panting! Thalaba looks up;
He starts, and his instinctive hand
Grasps the knife hilt; for close beside
A Tiger passes him.
An indolent and languid eye
The passing Tiger turn'd;
His head was hanging down,
His dry tongue lolling low,
And the short panting of his breath
Came through his hot, parch'd nostrils painfully
The young Arabian knew
The purport of his hurried pace,
And following him in hope,
Saw joyful from afar
The Tiger stoop and drink.

3.

A desert Pelican had built her nest
In that deep solitude;
And now, return'd from distant flight,
Fraught with the river-stream,
Her load of water had disburden'd there
Her young in the refreshing bath
Dipp'd down their callow heads,
Fill'd the swollen membrane from their plumeless throat
Pendent, and bills yet soft;
And buoyant with arch'd breast,
Plied in unpractised stroke
The oars of their broad feet.
They, as the spotted prowler of the wild
Laps the cool wave, around their mother crowd,
And nestle underneath her outspread wings.
The spotted prowler of the wild
Lapp'd the cool wave, and satiate, from the nest,
Guiltless of blood, withdrew.

4.

The mother-bird had moved not,
But, cowering o'er her nestlings,
Sate confident and fearless,
And watch'd the wonted guest.
But, when the human visitant approach'd,
The alarmed Pelican,
Retiring from that hostile shape,
Gathers her young, and menaces with wings,
And forward thrusts her threatening neck,
Its feathers ruffling in her wrath,
Bold with maternal fear.
Thalaba drank, and in the water-skin
Hoarded the precious element.
Not all he took, but in the large nest left
Store that sufficed for life;
And journeying onward, blest the Carrier Bird,
And blest, in thankfulness,
Their common Father, provident for all.

5.With strength renew'd, and confident in faith,

The son of Hodeirah proceeds;
Till, after the long toil of many a day,
At length Bagdad appear'd,
The City of his search.
He, hastening to the gate,
Roams o'er the city with insatiate eyes;
Its thousand dwellings, o'er whose level roofs
Fair cupolas appear'd, and high-domed mosques,
And pointed minarets, and cypress groves,
Every where scatter'd in unwithering green.

6.

Thou too art fallen, Bagdad! City of Peace,
Thou too hast had thy day;
And loathsome Ignorance and brute Servitude
Pollute thy dwellings now,
Erst for the Mighty and the Wise renown'd.
O yet illustrious for remember'd fame, —
Thy founder the Victorious, — and the pomp
Of Haroun, for whose name, by blood defiled,
Yahia's, and the blameless Barmecides',
Genius hath wrought salvation, — and the years
When Science with the good Al-Maimon dwelt:
So one day may the Crescent from thy Mosques
Be pluck'd by Wisdom, when the enlighten'd arm
Of Europe conquers to redeem the East!

7.

Then Pomp and Pleasure dwelt within her walls;
The Merchants of the East and of the West
Met in her arch'd Bazars;
All day the active poor
Shower'd a cool comfort o'er her thronging stream
Labor was busy in her looms;
Through all her open gates
Long troops of laden Camels lined the roads
And Tigris bore upon his tameless stream
Armenian harvests to her multitudes.
8.

But not in sumptuous Caravansary
The adventurer idles there,
Nor satiates wonder with her pomp and wealth
A long day's distance from the walls
Stands ruined Babylon;
The time of action is at hand;
The hope that for so many a year
Hath been his daily thought, his nightly dream,
Stings to more restlessness.
He loathes all lingering that delays the hour
When, full of glory, from his quest return'd
He on the pillar of the Tent beloved
Shall hang Hodeirah's sword.

9.

The many-colored domes
Yet wore one dusky hue;
The Cranes upon the Mosque
Kept their night-clatter still;
When through the gate the early Traveller past
And when at evening o'er the swampy plain
The Bittern's boom came far,
Distinct in darkness seen
Above the low horizon's lingering light,
Rose the near ruins of old Babylon.
10.

Once from her lofty walls the Charioteer
Look'd down on swarming myriads; once she flung
Her arches o'er Euphrates' conquer'd tide,
And through her brazen portals when the pour'd
Her armies forth, the distant nations look'd
As men who watch the thunder-cloud in fear,
Lest it should burst above them. She was fallen,
The Queen of cities, Babylon, was fallen
Low lay her bulwarks; the black Scorpion busk
In the palace courts; within the sanctuary
The She-Wolf hid her whelps.
Is yonder huge and shapeless heap, what once
Hath been the airial Gardens, height on height,
Rising like Media's mountains crown'd with wood
Work of imperial dotage? Where the fame
Of Belus? Where the Golden Image now,
Which, at the sound of dulcimer and lute,
Cornet and sacbut, harp and psaltery,
The Assyrian slaves adored?
A labyrinth of ruins, Babylon
Spreads o'er the blasted plain:
The wandering Arab never sets his tent
Within her walls; the Shepherd eyes afar
Her evil towers, and devious drives his flock
Alone unchanged, a free and bridgeless tide
Euphrates rolls along,
Eternal Nature's work.

11.

Through the broken portal,
Over weedy fragments,
Thalaba went his way.
Cautious he trod, and felt
The dangerous ground before him with his bow.
The Jackal started at his steps;
The Stork, alarm'd at sound of man,
From her broad nest upon the old pillar top,
Affrighted fled on flapping wings;
The Adder, in her haunts disturb'd,
Lanced at the intruding staff her arrowy tongue.

12.

Twilight and moonshine dimly mingling gave
An awful light obscure,
Evening not wholly closed,
The Moon still pale and faint;
An awful light obscure,
Broken by many a mass of blackest shade;
Long column stretching dark through weeds and moss,
Broad length of lofty wall,
Whose windows lay in light,
And of their former shape, low arch'd or square,
Rude outline on the earth
Figured, with long grass fringed.

13.

Reclined against a column's broken shaft,
Unknowing whitherward to bend his way,
He stood, and gazed around.
The Ruins closed him in;
It seem'd as if no foot of man
For ages had intruded there.

14.

Soon at approaching step
Startling, he turn'd and saw
A Warrior in the moon-beam drawing near.
Forward the Stranger came,
And with a curious eye
Perused the Arab youth

15.

" And who art thou, " the Stranger cried,
" That, at an hour like this,
Wanderest in Babylon?
A way-bewilder'd traveller, seekest thou
The ruinous shelter here?
Or comest thou to hide
The plunder of the night?
Or hast thou spells to make
These ruins, yawning from their rooted base,
Disclose their secret wealth?'

16.

The youth replied, " Nor wandering traveller,
Nor robber of the night,
Nor skill'd in spells am I.
I seek the Angels here,
Haruth and Maruth. Stranger, in thy turn,
Why wanderest thou in Babylon,
And who art thou, the questioner? "

17.

The man was fearless, and the temper'd pride
Which toned the voice of Thalaba
Displeased not him, himself of haughty heart
Heedless he answered, " Knowest thou
Their cave of punishment? "

18.

THALABA .

Vainly I seek it.

STRANGER.

Art thou firm of foot
To tread the ways of danger?

THALABA .

Point the path!

STRANGER .

Young Arab! if thou hast a heart can beat
Evenly in danger; if thy bowels yearn not
With human fears at scenes where, undisgraced,
The soldier, tried in battle, might look back
And tremble, follow me! — for I am bound
Into that cave of horrors.

19.

Thalaba

Gazed on his comrade: he was young, of port
Stately and strong; belike his face had pleased
A woman's eye; but the youth read in it
Unrestrain'd passions, the obdurate soul
Bold in all evil daring; and it taught,
By Nature's irresistible instinct, doubt
Well-timed and wary. Of himself assured,
Fearless of man, and firm in faith,
" Lead on! " cried Thalaba.
Mohareb led the way;
And through the ruin'd streets,
And through the farther gate,
They pass'd in silence on.

20.

What sound is borne on the wind?
Is it the storm that shakes
The thousand oaks of the forest?
But Thalaba's long locks
Flow down his shoulders moveless, and the wind
In his loose mantle raises not a fold.
Is it the river's roar
Dash'd down some rocky descent?
Along the level plain
Euphrates glides unheard.
What sound disturbs the night,
Loud as the summer forest in the storm,
As the river that roars among rocks?

21.

And what the heavy cloud
That hangs upon the vale,
Thick as the mist o'er a well-water'd plain,
Settling at evening when the cooler air
Lets its day-vapors fall;
Black as the sulphur-cloud,
That through Vesuvius, or from Hecla's mouth,
Rolls up, ascending from the infernal fires?

22.

From Ait's bitumen-lake
That heavy cloud ascends;
That everlasting roar
From where its gushing springs
Boil their black billows up.
Silent the Arabian youth,
Along the verge of that wide lake,
Follow'd Mohareb's way,
Toward a ridge of rocks that bank'd its side,
There, from a cave, with torrent force,
And everlasting roar,
The black bitumen roll'd.
The moonlight lay upon the rocks;
Their crags were visible,
The shade of jutting cliffs,
And where broad lichens whiten'd some smooth spot,
And where the ivy hung
Its flowing tresses down.
A little way within the cave
The moonlight fell, glossing the sable tide
That gush'd tumultuous out.
A little way it entered then the rock
Arching its entrance, and the winding way,
Darken'd the unseen depths.

23.

No eye of mortal man,
If unenabled by enchanted spell,
Had pierced those fearful depths;
For mingling with the roar
Of the portentous torrent, oft were heard
Shrieks, and wild yells that scared
The brooding Eagle from her midnight nest.
The affrighted countrymen
Call it the Mouth of Hell;
And ever, when their way leads near,
They hurry with averted eyes,
And dropping their beads fast,
Pronounce the Holy Name.

24.

There pausing at the cavern-mouth,
Mohareb turn'd to Thalaba:
" Now darest thou enter in? "
" Behold! " the youth replied,
And leading in his turn the dangerous way,
Set foot within the cave.

25.

" Stay, Madman! " cried his comrade: " wouldst thou rush
Headlong to certain death?
Where are thine arms to meet
The Keeper of the Passage? " A loud shriek,
That shook along the windings of the cave,
Scatter'd the youth's reply.

26.

Monareb, when the long reichoing ceased,
Exclaim'd, " Fate favor'd thee,
Young Arab! when she wrote upon thy brow
The meeting of to-night;
Else surely had thy name
This hour been blotted from the Book of Life" "

27.

So saying, from beneath
His cloak a bag he drew:
" Young Arab! thou art brave, " he cried;
" But thus to rush on danger unprepared
As lions spring upon the hunter's spear,
Is blind, brute courage. Zohak keeps the cave
Against that Giant of primeval days;
No force can win the passage. " Thus he said,
And from his wallet drew a human hand,
Shrivell'd, and dry, and black;
And fitting, as he spake,
A taper in its hold,
Pursued: " A murderer on the stake had died;
I drove the Vulture from his limbs, and lopp'd
The hand that did the murder, and drew up
The tendon-strings to close its grasp,
And in the sun and wind
Parch'd it, nine weeks exposed.
The Taper, — but not here the place to impart
Nor hast thou undergone the rites
That fit thee to partake the mystery.
Look! it burns clear, but with the air around
Its dead ingredients mingle deathiness.
This when the Keeper of the Cave shall feel, —
Maugre the doom of Heaven, —
The salutary spell
Shall lull his penal agony to sleep,
And leave the passage free. "

28.

Thalaba answer'd not.
Nor was there time for answer now,
For lo! Mohareb leads,
And o'er the vaulted cave,
Trembles the accursed taper's feeble light,
There, where the narrowing chasm
Rose loftier in the hill,
Stood Zohak, wretched man, condemn'd to keep
His Cave of punishment.
His was the frequent scream
Which when, far off, the prowling Jackal heard
He howl'd in terror back:
For from his shoulders grew
Two snakes of monster size,
Which ever at his head
Aim'd their rapacious teeth,
To satiate raving hunger with his brain.
He, in the eternal conflict, oft would seize
Their swelling necks, and in his giant grasp
Bruise them, and rend their flesh with blood nails,
And howl for agony,
Feeling the pangs he gave; for of himself
Co-sentient and inseparable parts,
The snaky torturers grew.

29.

To him approaching now,
Mohareb held the wither'd arm,
The taper of enchanted power.
The unhallow'd spell, in hand unholy held,
Then minister'd to mercy; heavily
The wretch's eyelids closed;
And welcome and unfelt,
Like the release of death,
A sudden sleep surprised his vital powers.

30.

Yet though along the cave relax'd
Lay Zohak's giant limbs,
The twin-born serpents kept the narrow pass,
Kindled their fiery eyes,
Darted their tongues of terror, and roll'd out
Their undulating length,
Like the long streamers of some gallant ship
Buoy'd on the wavy air,
Still struggling to flow on, and still withheld.
The scent of living flesh
Inflamed their appetite.

31.

Prepared for all the perils of the cave,
Mohareb came. He from his wallet drew
Two human heads, yet warm.
O hard of heart! whom not the visible power
Of retributive Justice, and the doom
Of Zohak in his sight,
Deterr'd from equal crime!
Two human heads, yet warm, he laid
Before the scaly guardians of the pass;
They to their wonted banquet of old years
Turn'd eager, and the narrow pass was free.

32.

And now before their path
The opening cave dilates;
They reach a spacious vault,
Where the black river-fountains burst their way.
Now as a whirlwind's force
Had centred on the spring,
The gushing flood roll'd up;
And now the deaden'd roar
Echoed beneath, collapsing as it sunk
Within a dark abyss,
Adown whose fathomless gulfs the eye was lost

33.

Blue flames that hover'd o'er the springs
Flung through the cavern their uncertain light;
Now waving on the waves they lay,
And now their fiery curls
Flow'd in long tresses up,
And now contracting, glow'd with whiter heat
Then up they shot again,
Darting pale flashes through the tremulous air;
The flames, the red and yellow sulphur-smoke,
And the black darkness of the vault,
Commingling indivisibly.

34.

" Here, " quoth Mohareb, " do the Angels dwell,
The Teachers of Enchantment. " Thalaba
Then raised his voice, and cried,
" Haruth and Maruth, hear me! Not with rites
Accursed, to disturb your penitence,
And learn forbidden lore,
Repentant Angels, seek I your abode;
But sent by Allah and the Prophet here,
Obediently I come;
Their chosen servant I;
Tell me the Talisman " —

35.

" And dost thou think, "
Mohareb cried, as with a smile of scorn
He glanced upon his comrade, " dost thou think
To trick them of their secret? For the dupes
Of human-kind keep this lip-righteousness!
'Twill serve thee in the Mosque
And in the Market-place;
But Spirits view the heart.
Only by strong and torturing spells enforced,
Those stubborn Angels teach the charm
By which we must descend "

36.

" Descend? " said Thalaba.
But then the wrinkling smile
Forsook Mohareb's cheek,
And darker feelings settled on his brow.
" Now, by my soul, " quoth he, " and I believe,
Idiot! that I have led
Some camel-kneed prayer-monger through the cave! "
What brings thee hither? Thou shouldst have a hut
By some Saint's grave beside the public way,
There to less-knowing fools
Retail thy Koran-scraps,
And, in thy turn, die civet-like, at last,
In the dung-perfume of thy sanctity! —
Ye whom I seek! that, led by me,
Feet uninitiate tread
Your threshold, this atones! —
Fit sacrifice he falls! "
And forth he flash'd his cimeter,
And raised the murderous blow.

37.

There ceased his power; his lifted arm,
Suspended by the spell,
Hung impotent to strike.
" Poor hypocrite! " cried he,
" And this then is thy faith
In Allah and the Prophet! They had fail'd
To save thee, but for Magic's stolen aid;
Yea, they had left thee yonder Serpent s meal,
But that, in prudent cowardice,
The chosen Servant of the Lord came in,
Safe follower of my path! "

38.

" Blasphemer! dost thou boast of guiding me? "
Quoth Thalaba, with virtuous pride inflamed.
" Blindly the wicked work
The righteous will of Heaven!
Sayest thou that, diffident of God,
In Magic spells I trust?
Liar! let witness this! "
And he drew off Abdaldar's Ring,
And cast it in the gulf.
A skinny hand came up,
And caught it as it fell,
And peals of devilish laughter shook the Cave

39.

Then joy suffused Mohareb's cheek,
And Thalaba beheld
The blue blade gleam, descending to destroy.

40.

The undefended youth
Sprung forward, and he seized
Mohareb in his grasp,
And grappled with him breast to breast.
Sinewy and large of limb Mohareb was,
Broad-shoulder'd, and his joints
Knit firm, and in the strife
Of danger practised well.
Time had not thus matured young Thalaba;
But high-wrought feeling now,
The inspiration and the mood divine,
Infused a force portentous, like the strength
Of madness through his frame.
Mohareb reels before him; he right on,
With knee, with breast, with arm,
Presses the staggering foe;
And now upon the brink
Of that tremendous spring, —
There with fresh impulse and a rush of force,
He thrust him from his hold.
The upwhirling flood received
Mohareb, then, absorb'd,
Engulf'd him in the abyss.

41.

Thalaba's breath came fast;
And, panting, he breathed out
A broken prayer of thankfulness.
At length he spake and said,
" Haruth and Maruth! are ye here?
Or hath that evil guide misled my search?
I, Thalaba, the Servant of the Lord,
Invoke you. Hear me, Angels! so may Heaven
Accept and mitigate your penitence!
I go to root from earth the Sorcerer brood;
Tell me the needful Talisman! "

42.

Thus, as he spake, recumbent on the rock
Beyond the black abyss,
Their forms grew visible.
A settled sorrow sate upon their brows —
Sorrow alone, for trace of guilt and shame
None now remain'd; and gradual, as by prayer
The sin was purged away,
Their robe of glory, purified of stain,
Resumed the lustre of its native light.

43.

In awe the youth received the answering voice —
" Son of Hodeirah! thou hast proved it here;
The Talisman is Faith."