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Literary Gazette, 11th November, 1836, Page 730
ORIGINAL POETRY.
LINES
Suggested by a Drawing of W. Daniel's, Esq. A. R. A.,
representing the Hindoo Girls floating their Tributary
offerings down the Ganges.
They bend above the moonlit stream,
With gathered fruit and flowers;
The last on which the sun has left
The earlier rosy hours.
One sends a vow to him afar—
Ah! never can the heart
Know half the love it cherishes
Until it comes to part.
A thousand things are then recalled,
Though scarcely marked at first;
But lingering thoughts in after hours
Betray how they were nurst.
Another sends a little boat
Upon its happier way;
She knows to-morrow will restore
The eyes she loved to-day.
They bend with all the eager hope,
The confidence of youth,
Which makes the future it believes,
And trusts itself with truth.
And never Grecian chisel formed
Shapes of more perfect grace,
Than by the moonlit Ganges bend,
Each o'er her mirrored face.
Ah! love takes many shapes; at first
It comes as flashes fly,
That bear the lightning on their wings,
And then in darkness die.