There’s a bliss beyond all that the minstrel has told, When two, that are link’d in one heavenly tie, With heart never changing, and brow never cold, Love on through all ills, and love on till they die! One hour of a passion so sacred is worth Whole ages of heartless and wandering bliss; And, oh! if there _be_ an Elysium on earth, It is this, it is this. -------------- Twas not the air, ’twas not the words, But that deep magic in the chords And in the lips, that gave such power As music knew not till that hour. At once a hundred voices said, “It is the mask’d Arabian maid!” While SELIM, who had felt the strain Deepest of any, and had lain Some minutes rapt, as in a trance, After the fairy sounds were o’er, Too inly touched for utterance, Now motion’d with his hand for more:— -------------- Fly to the desert, fly with me, Our Arab tents are rude for thee; But, oh! the choice what heart can doubt, Of tents with love, or thrones without? Our rocks are rough, but smiling there The’ acacia waves her yellow hair, Lonely and sweet, nor lov’d the less For flowering in a wilderness. Our sands are bare, but down their slope The silvery-footed antelope As gracefully and gaily springs As o’er the marble courts of kings. Then come—thy Arab maid will be The lov’d and lone acacia-tree, The antelope, whose feet shall bless With their light sound thy loneliness. Oh! there are looks and tones that dart An instant sunshine through the heart,— As if the soul that minute caught Some treasure it through life had sought; As if the very lips and eyes, Predestin’d to have all our sighs, And never be forgot again, Sparkled and spoke before us then! So came thy every glance and tone, When first on me they breath’d and shone; New, as if brought from other spheres, Yet welcome as if loved for years. Then fly with me,—if thou hast known No other flame, nor falsely thrown A gem away, that thou hadst sworn Should ever in thy heart be worn. Come, if the love thou hast for me Is pure and fresh as mine for thee,— Fresh as the fountain under ground, When first ’tis by the lapwing found.[377]