Fair, as the first that fell of womankind,

When on that dread yet lovely serpent smiling,

Whose Image then was stamped upon her mind—160

But once beguiled—and ever more beguiling;

Dazzling, as that, oh! too transcendent vision

To Sorrow's phantom-peopled slumber given,

When heart meets heart again in dreams Elysian,

And paints the lost on Earth revived in Heaven;

Soft, as the memory of buried love;

Pure, as the prayer which Childhood wafts above;

Was she—the daughter of that rude old Chief,

Who met the maid with tears—but not of grief.

Who hath not proved how feebly words essay[132]170

To fix one spark of Beauty's heavenly ray?

Who doth not feel, until his failing sight[fl]

Faints into dimness with its own delight,

His changing cheek, his sinking heart confess

The might—the majesty of Loveliness?

Such was Zuleika—such around her shone

The nameless charms unmarked by her alone—

The light of Love, the purity of Grace,[fm]

The mind, the Music[133] breathing from her face,

The heart whose softness harmonized the whole,180

And oh! that eye was in itself a Soul!

Her graceful arms in meekness bending

Across her gently-budding breast;

At one kind word those arms extending

To clasp the neck of him who blest

His child caressing and carest,

Zuleika came—and Giaffir felt

His purpose half within him melt:

Not that against her fancied weal

His heart though stern could ever feel;190

Affection chained her to that heart;

Ambition tore the links apart.