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Landon in The Literary Gazette 1824/Indian Song

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For works with similar titles, see Fragment (Letitia Elizabeth Landon).
Poems
by Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Fragments. 3rd Series. Indian Song
2258459Poems — Fragments. 3rd Series. Indian SongLetitia Elizabeth Landon

Literary Gazette, 17th January, 1824, Page 41

INDIAN SONG.
Founded on a romantic species of Divination
practised by Indian Maidens.

To the moonlit waters of the lake
    My little bark I gave,
And gentle as the jasmin's sigh
    Was the wind that swept the wave.

I chose the night from many a one,
    It was so very fair;
Scarcely the cocoa's light green plumes
    Waved on the languid air.

Last year, beneath the summer moon,
    I planted a young rose,
I watered it at the sunrise,
    And at the evening's close.

I only let one single flower
    Amid the boughs abide,
Soon as they came I culled the heads
    Of every bud beside.

I shaded it from the hot noon,
    And from the midnight dew,
And fresh, and red, and beautiful,
    My lonely rosebud grew.

This morning it was in its prime,
    And then my bark I made
Of the green fragrant grass that grows
    In the bannana's shade.

I made a taper of white wax
    From my own hive, whose bees
Had fed but upon hyacinth bells
    And on young myrtle trees.

And in the bark that taper stood,
    Hung with a wreath of green,
And in the midst my lovely rose
    Sat like a fairy queen.

I threw rich spice and scented oils
    Around the lighted flame,
And gave it to the stream, and called
    Upon Camdeo's name.

My cheek blushed warm, my heart beat high,
    The bark moved slowly on;
There breath'd no wind, there moved no wave,
    Yet like a thought 'twas gone.

Alas, my bark! Alas, my rose!
    Yet what could I expect?
I sent them on a voyage of love,
    And when was love not wreck'd?—L. E. L.