Ah ZELICA! there _was_ a time, when bliss Shone o’er thy heart from every look of his; When but to see him, hear him, breathe the air In which he dwelt, was thy soul’s fondest prayer; When round him hung such a perpetual spell Whate’er he did, none ever did so well. Too happy days! when, if he touch’d a flower Or gem of thine, ’twas sacred from that hour; When thou didst study him till every tone And gesture and dear look became thy own,— Thy voice like his, the changes of his face In thine reflected with still lovelier grace. Like echo, sending back sweet music, fraught With twice the’ aërial sweetness it had brought! Yet now he comes,—brighter than even he E’er beam’d before,—but, ah! not bright for thee; No—dread, unlook’d for, like a visitant From the’ other world, he comes as if to haunt Thy guilty soul with dreams of lost delight, Long lost to all but memory’s aching sight:— Sad dreams! as when the Spirit of our Youth Returns in sleep, sparkling with all the truth And innocence once ours, and leads us back, In mournful mockery, o’er the shining track Of our young life, and points out every ray Of hope and peace we’ve lost upon the way! Once happy pair!—In proud BOKHARA’S groves, Who had not heard of their first youthful loves? Born by that ancient flood,[46] which from its spring In the dark Mountains swiftly wandering, Enrich’d by every pilgrim brook that shines With relics from BUCHARIA’S ruby mines, And, lending to the CASPIAN half its strength, In the cold Lake of Eagles sinks at length;— There, on the banks of that bright river born, The flowers, that hung above its wave at morn, Bless’d not the waters, as they murmur’d by, With holier scent and lustre, than the sigh And virgin-glance of first affection cast Upon their youth’s smooth current, as it pass’d! But war disturb’d this vision,—far away From her fond eyes summon’d to join the’ array Of PERSIA’S warriors on the hills of THRACE, The youth exchang’d his sylvan dwelling-place For the rude tent and war-field’s deathful clash; His ZELICA’S sweet glances for the flash Of Grecian wild-fire, and Love’s gentle chains For bleeding bondage on BYZANTIUM’S plains.