And a look of passionate desire O'er the sea and to th stars I send: "Ye who from my childhood up have calmed me, Calm me, ah, compose me to the end! "Ah, once more," I cried, "ye stars, On my heart your mighty charm renew; 8 What blowing daisies. fragrant grass! ye Counts his day's spoil, the spotted trout. 24 And with joy the stars perform their shining, O air-born voice! long since, severely clear, LINES WRITTEN IN KENSINGTON GARDENS2 In this lone, open glade I lie, Screened by deep boughs on either hand; And at its end, to stay the eye, 32 I, on men's impious uproar hurled, Yet here is peace for ever new! REQUIESCAT+ Strew on her roses, roses, And never a spray of yew! In quiet she reposes; Ah, would that I did too! Her mirth the world required; She bathed it in smiles of glee. Her life was turning, turning, Her cabined, ample spirit, It fluttered and failed for breath. To-night it doth inherit The vasty hall of death. 16 24 32 40 SOHRAB AND RUSTUM* And the first gray of morning filled the east, And the fog rose out of the Oxus stream.5 But all the Tartar camp along the stream Tossing and wakeful, and I come to thee. 40 Was hushed, and still the men were plunged in Thou know'st if, since from Ader-baijans first The men of former times had crowned the top 20 30 And he rose quickly on one arm, and said:"Who art thou? for it is not yet clear dawn. Speak! is there news, or any night alarm?'' But Sohrab came to the bedside, and said:"Thou know 'st me, Peran-Wisa! it is I. The sun is not yet risen, and the foe Sleep; but I sleep not; all night long I lie 5 Now the Amu-Daria, flowing from the plateau of Pamir, in central Asia, to the Aral Sea. 6 A Turanian chieftain. 7 From "pile"-fur, or hair-like nap. Founded on a story in the Persian epic, Shah Nameh, or "Book of Kings." Rustum is the great legendary warrior-hero of Iran, or Persia. In the Turanian, or Tartar land, which is ruled over by Afrasiab, an enemy of the Persians, Rustum's son Sohrab has grown up without ever having seen his father; nor does the father know of the existence of his son, having been told that the child born to him was a girl. The rest of the tragic tale may be left to tell itself in the simple and dignified language which Arnold, in professed imitation of the Homeric poems, has chosen. See Eng. Lit., p. 812. I came among the Tartars and bore arms, 49 And beat the Persians back on every field, His not unworthy, not inglorious son. 60 But of a single combat fame speaks clear.' To seek out Rustum-seek him not through fight! Seek him in peace, and carry to his arms, 8 A northerly province of Persia. 9 Three syllables, Sc-is-tan; in castern Persia. Danger or death awaits thee on this field. Fain would I know thee safe and well, though lost To us! fain therefore send thee hence, in peace To seek thy father, not seek single fights 90 In vain;- but who can keep the lion's cub His bed, and the warm rugs whereon he lay; Who roam o'er Kipchak and the northern waste, Kalmucks and unkempt Kuzzaks, tribes who stray Nearest the Pole, and wandering Kirghizzes, The Ilyats of Khorassan; and behind, And when Ferood, who led the Persians, saw they stood. 141 And the old Tartar came upon the sand Betwixt the silent hosts, and spake, and said:"Ferood, and ye, Persians and Tartars, hear! The sun by this had risen, and cleared the And checked his ranks, and fixed them where fog From the broad Oxus and the glittering sands. And from their tents the Tartar horsemen filed Into the open plain; so Haman bade— Haman, who next to Peran-Wisa ruled The host, and still was in his lusty prime. From their black tents, long files of horse, they streamed; 110 150 Let there be truce between the hosts to-day. 160 Crossing so high, that, as they mount, they pass Long flocks of travelling birds dead on the snow, Choked by the air, and scarce can they themselves Slake their parched throats with sugared mulberries In single file they move, and stop their breath, For fear they should dislodge the o'erhanging snows So the pale Persians held their breath with fear. "Ferood, shame bids us take their challenge up, Yet champion have we none to match this youth. Out on the sands beyond it, Rustum's tents. A side of roasted sheep, and cakes of bread, And played with it; but Gudurz came and stood "Welcome! these eyes could see no better What news? but sit down first, and eat and drink." Thou knowest better words than this to say. But Gudurz stood in the tent door, and What is one more, one less, obscure or famed, said: - "Not now! a time will come to eat and drink. 250 Valiant or craven, young or old, to me? Come, thou shalt see how Rustum hoards his But I will fight unknown, and in plain arms; He spoke, and frowned; and Gudurz turned, 260 Back quickly through the camp in fear and joy Fear at his wrath, but joy that Rustum came, *Zal was born with white hair, and on that account had been cast out to die, but was fostered by a marvelous bird, the simburg, or roc. Cp. I. 679. But Rustum strode to his tent-door, and called His spirited air, and wondered who he was. Which in a queen's secluded garden throws 320 Ruksh, whose renown was noised through all the ❘ And beckoned to him with his hand, and said:— earth, The horse, whom Rustum on a foray once A colt beneath its dam, and drove him home, All beasts of chase, all beasts which hunters Of his pale wife who waits and weeps on shore, 290 And Rustum to the Persian front advanced, And Sohrab armed in Haman's tent, and came. And as afield the reapers cut a swath Down through the middle of a rich man's corn, And on each side are squares of standing corn, And in the midst a stubble, short and bareSo on each side were squares of men, with spears 300 Bristling, and in the midst, the open sand. "O thou young man, the air of Heaven is soft, And warm, and pleasant; but the grave is cold! Heaven's air is better than the cold dead grave. Behold me! I am vast, and clad in iron, And tried; and I have stood on many a field | Of blood, and I have fought with many a foe— Never was that field lost, or that foe saved. O Sohrab, wherefore wilt thou rush on death? Be governed! quit the Tartar host, and come 330 To Iran, and be as my son to me, And fight beneath my banner till I die! There are no youths in Iran brave as thou." So he spake, mildly; Sohrab heard his voice, The mighty voice of Rustum, and he saw His giant figure planted on the sand, Sole, like some single tower, which a chief Hath builded on the waste in former years Against the robbers; and he saw that head, Streaked with its first gray hairs;-hope filled his soul, 340 And he ran forward and embraced his knees, And clasped his hand within his own, and said: "O, by thy father's head! by thine own soul! Art thou not Rustum? speak! art thou not he?” But Rustum eyed askance the kneeling youth, And turned away, and spake to his own soul:"Ah me, I muse what this young fox may mean! 350 False, wily, boastful, are these Tartar boys. Who with numb blackened fingers makes her | A belt or sword perhaps, and go his way. At cock-crow, on a starlit winter's morn, And on a feast-tide, in Afrasiab's hall, In Samarcand, he will arise and cry: When the frost flowers the whitened window-'I panes challenged once, when the two armies camped And wonders how she lives, and what the Beside the Oxus, all the Persian lords thoughts Of that poor drudge may be; so Rustum eyed The unknown adventurous youth, who from afar Came seeking Rustum, and defying forth 310 All the most valiant chiefs; long he perused 360 To cope with me in single fight; but they Shrank, only Rustum dared; then he and I Changed gifts, and went on equal terms away.' For this oriental figure, compare the Rubáiyát, st. xli. |