VI.

Fair, as the first that fell of womankind, When on that dread yet lovely serpent smiling, Whose Image then was stamped upon her mind-- 160 But once beguiled--and ever more beguiling; Dazzling, as that, oh! too transcendent vision To Sorrow's phantom-peopled slumber given, When heart meets heart again in dreams Elysian, And paints the lost on Earth revived in Heaven; Soft, as the memory of buried love; Pure, as the prayer which Childhood wafts above; Was she--the daughter of that rude old Chief, Who met the maid with tears--but not of grief.

Who hath not proved how feebly words essay[132] 170 To fix one spark of Beauty's heavenly ray? Who doth not feel, until his failing sight[fl] Faints into dimness with its own delight, His changing cheek, his sinking heart confess The might--the majesty of Loveliness? Such was Zuleika--such around her shone The nameless charms unmarked by her alone-- The light of Love, the purity of Grace,[fm] The mind, the Music[133] breathing from her face, The heart whose softness harmonized the whole, 180 And oh! that eye was in itself a Soul!

Her graceful arms in meekness bending Across her gently-budding breast; At one kind word those arms extending To clasp the neck of him who blest His child caressing and carest, Zuleika came--and Giaffir felt His purpose half within him melt: Not that against her fancied weal His heart though stern could ever feel; 190 Affection chained her to that heart; Ambition tore the links apart.