Poems eBook

Who thus disturbs the tide near the seraglio? 
  ’Tis no dark cormorants that on the ripple float,
  ’Tis no dull plume of stone—­no oars of Turkish boat,
With measured beat along the water creeping slow.

’Tis heavy sacks, borne each by voiceless dusky slaves;
  And could you dare to sound the depths of yon dark tide,
  Something like human form would stir within its side. 
Bright shone the merry moonbeams dancing o’er the wave.

JOHN L. O’SULLIVAN.

THE VEIL.

("Qu’avez-vous, mes freres?")

[XI., September, 18288.]

“Have you prayed tonight, Desdemona?”

THE SISTER

What has happened, my brothers?  Your spirit to-day
    Some secret sorrow damps
There’s a cloud on your brow.  What has happened?  Oh, say,
For your eyeballs glare out with a sinister ray
    Like the light of funeral lamps. 
And the blades of your poniards are half unsheathed
    In your belt—­and ye frown on me! 
There’s a woe untold, there’s a pang unbreathed
    In your bosom, my brothers three!

ELDEST BROTHER.

Gulnara, make answer!  Hast thou, since the dawn,
To the eye of a stranger thy veil withdrawn?

THE SISTER.

As I came, oh, my brother! at noon—­from the bath—­
    As I came—­it was noon, my lords—­
And your sister had then, as she constantly hath,
Drawn her veil close around her, aware that the path
    Is beset by these foreign hordes. 
But the weight of the noonday’s sultry hour
Near the mosque was so oppressive
That—­forgetting a moment the eye of the Giaour—­
    I yielded to th’ heat excessive.

SECOND BROTHER.

Gulnara, make answer!  Whom, then, hast thou seen,
In a turban of white and a caftan of green?

THE SISTER.

Nay, he might have been there; but I muflled me so,
    He could scarcely have seen my figure.—­
But why to your sister thus dark do you grow? 
What words to yourselves do you mutter thus low,
    Of “blood” and “an intriguer”? 
Oh! ye cannot of murder bring down the red guilt
    On your souls, my brothers, surely! 
Though I fear—­from the hands that are chafing the hilt,
    And the hints you give obscurely.

THIRD BROTHER.

Gulnara, this evening when sank the red sun,
Didst thou mark how like blood in descending it shone?

THE SISTER.

Mercy!  Allah! have pity! oh, spare! 
    See!  I cling to your knees repenting! 
Kind brothers, forgive me! for mercy, forbear! 
Be appeased at the cry of a sister’s despair,
    For our mother’s sake relenting. 
O God! must I die?  They are deaf to my cries! 
    Their sister’s life-blood shedding;
They have stabbed me each one—­I faint—­o’er my eyes
    A veil of Death is spreading!