Britain ... - Blue-Lite

Scene I.] THE DEVOTED ONE. 221
Where the date-tree's colonnade
O'er the water casts its shade.
Which, in silence as it flows,
Seems the spirit of repose,
And, as falls the chequered gleam
On the blue and glassy stream,
Sleeps the image of that grove,
Like Beauty in the lap of Love ;
Where the sun-palm towers on high,
And rich gems, like night-stars, lie
Mid the river's golden sands,
Whence came all our warlike bands,
And that bird of gorgeous wing,
Sun-set splendours rivalling,
Gilds the twilight of the grove,
Laden with the spicy clove ;
From the pathless forest's shade,
And the fig-tree's dim arcade,
Where the Indian hunter's yell
Rouses up the leopard fell,
And the giant serpent holds
Th' fierce elk struggling in its folds,
While the frighted tiger flies
From the fire-glance of its eyes ;
Where that fiend-like creature wild,
Whose grim visage never smiled,
Dwells amid the leafy waste,
Savage thing, nor man nor beast ;
Where doth roam the lion free
In his power and majesty,
Forests trembling at the roar
Of that hunter, steeped in gore ;
From the Ganges' sacred flood,