musiche is the verie pleasaunte sounde which the trees of
the forest do make when they growe.”
31
The wild bee will not sleep in the shade if there be
moonlight. The rhyme in this verse, as in one about sixty
lines before, has an appearance of affectation. It is,
however, imitated from Sir W. Scott, or rather from Claud
Halcro – in whose mouth I admired its effect:
O! were there an island,
Tho’ ever so wild
Where woman might smile, and
No man be beguil’d, &c.
32
* With the Arabians there is a medium between Heaven and
Hell, where men suffer no punishment, but yet do not attain
that tranquil and even happiness which they suppose to be
characteristic of heavenly enjoyment.
Un no rompido sueno —
Un dia puro – allegre – libre
Quiera —
Libre de amor – de zelo —
De odio – de esperanza – de rezelo. —Luis Ponce de Leon.
Sorrow is not excluded from “Al Aaraaf,” but it is that
sorrow which the living love to cherish for the dead, and
which, in some minds, resembles the delirium of opium. The
passionate excitement of Love and the buoyancy of spirit
attendant upon intoxication are its less holy pleasures —
the price of which, to those souls who make choice of “Al
Aaraaf” as their residence after life, is final death and
annihilation.
33
There be tears of perfect moan
Wept for thee in Helicon. —Milton.
34
It was entire in 1687 – the most elevated spot in Athens.
35
Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows
Than have the white breasts of the Queen of Love. —Marlowe.
36
Pennon – for pinion. —Milton.
37
And the angel Israfel, whose heart-strings are a lut, and
who has the sweetest voice of all God’s creatures. – KORAN.