But what are cups, without the aid Of song to speed them as they flow? And see—a lovely Georgian maid, With all the bloom, the freshen’d glow Of her own country maidens’ looks, When warm they rise from TEFLIS’ brooks;[370] And with an eye, whose restless ray, Full, floating, dark—oh, he, who knows His heart is weak, of heaven should pray To guard him from such eyes as those!— With a voluptuous wildness flings Her snowy hand across the strings Of a syrinda,[371] and thus sings:— -------------- Come hither, come hither—by night and by day, We linger in pleasures that never are gone; Like the waves of the summer, as one dies away, Another as sweet and as shining comes on. And the love that is o’er, in expiring, gives birth To a new one as warm, as unequall’d in bliss; And, oh! if there be an Elysium on earth, It is this, it is this.[372] Here maidens are sighing, and fragrant their sigh As the flower of the Amra just op’d by a bee;[373] And precious their tears as that rain from the sky,[374] Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea. Oh! think what the kiss and the smile must be worth When the sigh and the tear are so perfect in bliss, And own if there be an Elysium on earth, It is this, it is this. Here sparkles the nectar, that, hallow’d by love, Could draw down those angels of old from their sphere, Who for wine of this earth[375] left the fountains above, And forgot heaven’s stars for the eyes we have here. And, bless’d with the odour our goblet gives forth, What Spirit the sweets of his Eden would miss? For, oh! if there be an Elysium on earth, It is this, it is this. -------------- The Georgian’s song was scarcely mute, When the same measure, sound for sound, Was caught up by another lute, And so divinely breathed around, That all stood hush’d and wondering, And turn’d and look’d into the air, As if they thought to see the wing Of ISRAFIL,[376] the Angel, there;— So powerfully on every soul That new, enchanted measure stole. While now a voice, sweet as the note Of the charm’d lute, was heard to float Along its chords, and so entwine Its sounds with theirs, that none knew whether The voice or lute was most divine, So wondrously they went together:— --------------