No, Barmec! Time hath never shown
So sad a change of wayward fate;
Nor sorrowing mortals ever known
A grief so true, a loss so great.
Spouse of the world! Thy soothing breast
Did balm to every woe afford;
And now no more by thee caress'd,
The widow'd world bewails her Lord.
[13] The family of Barmec was one of the most illustrious in the East. They were descended from the ancient kings of Persia, and possessed immense property in various countries; they derived still more consequence from the favor which they enjoyed at the court of Bagdad, where, for many years, they filled the highest offices of the state with universal approbation.
TO TAHER BEN HOSIEN[14]
A pair of right hands and a single dim eye
Must form not a man, but a monster, they cry:—
Change a hand to an eye, good Taher, if you can,
And a monster perhaps may be chang'd to man.
[14] Taher Ben Hosien was ambidexter and one-eyed and, strange to say, the most celebrated general of his time.
THE ADIEU[15]
The boatmen shout, "Tis time to part,
No longer we can stay"—
'Twas then Maimnna taught my heart
How much a glance could say.
With trembling steps to me she came;
"Farewell," she would have cried,
But ere her lips the word could frame
In half-form'd sounds it died.
Then bending down with looks of love,
Her arms she round me flung,
And, as the gale hangs on the grove,
Upon my breast she hung.