Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
Hindostan
By Winthrop Mackworth Praed (18021839)F
Thou, in the joy of thine unfading day,
Goest thy wonted way,
Unwearied, to the sea;
On the huge canopy of sunny heaven,
Singest from morn to even
Thy changeless song of praise.
Eternally to him, the eternal King
Doubt flaps her murky wing,
Dim Ignorance spreads her cloud
Hither and thither thread the lurid air:
Darkness, Sin’s mother, there
Holds her unlovely reign;
Hath the glad light, Nature’s most precious flower,
Looked from its home of power
Upon the soul of man.
Behold the rites of death with that calm smile?
Lo, they have laid the pile;
The virgins, one by one,
The rich robes float; the costly gems beam bright!
The flambeau’s flickering light
Makes the clear day look dim.
Mute, motionless, a blameless sacrifice;
Upon the pile she lies,
Weeping unheeded tears.
Woe! she has said the irrevocable vow;
Self-slaughtered? Answer thou,
Priest of a bloody creed!
The hall of Padalon, the dark, the dread,
Is yawning for its dead,
And the relentless god
With those unpitying seers her terrors meek,
Her soft-toned prayers, her cheek
So eloquently pale!
“Farewell, farewell!” she whispers. It is past;
And round her, thick and fast,
The stifling flashes come.
Now fiercer echoes scare my shuddering ear!
Hear’st thou? I hear,—I hear,
Upon the wild wind’s breath,
Of mighty multitudes, that cheer or chide,
The charger’s voice of pride!
Hurriedly thronging out
Mothers and sons and maidens whose white hands
Wave wide the blazing brands:
And He, the mighty Lord,
Sceptred and crowned, upon his rolling throne,
Writhing his lips of stone
Into a fearful smile.
Gushes unceasing; scattered on the stones
Lie crushed and mangled bones;
Through slaughter and through blood
And laughter—shrill, unnatural laughter—rings
As each mad victim springs
To meet the murderous wheels.
Begin! Behold him on his golden seat,
The terrible! ’t is meet,
Thus as he rides along,
Yea, yea, we worship, hymning now the hymn,
And dancing round the grim
And flower-encircled car!”