Poems (Osgood)/Zuleika

by Frances Sargent Osgood

ZULEIKA.

from the spanish.

A lady in a light caique,
 Abdallah's youngest daughter,
With Love's blush-rose upon her cheek,
 Look'd o'er the moonlit water.

Her snow-soft hand in Selim's lay,
 Her heart was wildly beating,
But still her dark eyes turn'd away
 To watch the shore retreating.

"Nay, look not there, my trembling dove
 Young Selim cried in sorrow,—
"My bride to-night, by Allah, love,
 I'll bear thee back to-morrow!"

"Too late!" the lady sigh'd, "oh! now,
 If thou dost prize Zuleika,
Turn back!—point home thy shallop's prow,
 Ere those forsaken seek her!

"When first my lips their light assent
 To this light folly falter'd,
Love, only Love, his rainbow lent,
 And still it smiles unalter'd.

"But oh! thro' tears of grief and shame
 It glows; turn back, my bravest!
And blessings from Abdallah claim,
 For her whose truth thou savest!"

Young Selim bent his lightning eyes
 Back o'er the wild, blue water,—
With quivering lip he thus replies,
 To old Abdallah's daughter:—

"Tis done, Zuleika! lo! we turn,
 But never dream of Heaven
So fair to Moslem's eye did burn,
 As that which thou hast riven

At fierce Abdallah's feet they knelt,
 And own'd the vows they'd plighted;
His soften'd heart the story felt,
 His hand their hands united.

And long did Selim bless the hour
 That saw his Moorish beauty,
So meekly lay love's passion-flower
 Upon the shrine of duty!