TRANSITION.
 
HOW blest the day when bursting from the chains
Of iron-hearted interest, slavish fear,
And fiend-born superstition—o’er the plains
Of FREEDOM, man shall run his bold career!
 
So runs the bounding STAG, with ardour wild,
That seeks the shelter of his native shades;
No more by appetite or sloth beguiled,
He longs to traverse safe the lonely glades.
 
Marking the WOLF’s dire foot-tracks, swift away
Along the wind, he soon eludes a foe
Unskill’d with arts insidious to betray,
Or, from afar inflict the deadly blow.
 
With such thy happy fortune, ACHMED, here,
Forgive the wretch who sought thy blood to shed,
Nor deem the storm of destiny severe,
That shower’d down blessings on thy favour’d head.
 
When HEAVEN in mercy spares, the dangers past
Contrasted, heighten all the joys we feel;
Thus SPRING emerges from the wintry blast,
From its dark scabbard thus the gleaming steel.
 
The black cloud flown, thus lovely VENUS shines,
Soft HEZAR’s notes succeed the howlet’s scream.
The gloom-form’d treasures drawn from murky mines,
Catch dazzling brilliance from the SUN’s first beam.
 
Thus, rising from the grave, the righteous soul,
Clad in etherial vesture, mounts the skies;
And while below dark billowy oceans roll,
He views fair PARADISE with raptured eyes,
 
Contrasting heavenly JOYS with earthly strife,
Blesses the parting pangs of mortal life!