UNRIVALL’D MAID, whose heart-alluring eyes

Call forth yon orb that pours his golden ray

Wide o’er the plain, where ISPHAUN’s* minarets rise,

To view thy charms diffuse a brighter day!

 

When wintry glooms have long o’ercast the sky,

And chilling blasts, from TOURAN’s* desert borne,

Cause every flower and fragrant herb to die;

The mournful cypress lifts its head forlorn.

 

For then, no more soft HEZAR’s* soothing song,

Join’d with the shepherd’s voice salutes the vale;

Nor the light breeze from SABA* bears along

The mingled fragrance balmy groves exhale.

 

But when the genial hours of SPRING return,

Fraught with each joy that NATURE’s bosom warms;

The waving cypress shall no longer mourn,

Sweetly surrounded by unnumber’d charms.

 

Let not, O SELIMA! thy beauty’s SUN,

Veil’d in dark clouds, from ACHMED hide its rays:

No! let it shine on him—on him alone,

Whose lute now sounds enchanted with thy praise.

 

Life of my soul! withheld by love and thee,

I cease to tempt the dangers of the field:

Nor spoils nor triumphs now have charms for me,

Nor all the gems GOLCONDA’s* mountains yield.

 

This heart, with ardors-grateful saints might own,

Whose songs resound thro’ EDEN’s happy grove,

Lives for its darling SELIMA alone,

Whose form is BEAUTY, and whose soul is LOVE!