As wandering 'mid the wreathed bowers "Oh! wherefore am I drooping here, Far distant from that happier sphere, Where all my race have bloom'd their day, Then sunk in odorous gales away? Theirs was the orient's golden clime, Where Flora revels in her prime; And flowers and fruits are richly strown, Such as these lands have never known: Flowers bright as though the genial dews That fed them had imbibed the hues That deck the radiant bow of heaven, And to their leaves its splendours given. Nor rainbow tints alone are theirs ; Nature another charm prepares: Ambrosial sweets her urn distils, And every nectar'd chalice fills. Oh! how unlike this land of gloom, Dark as the precincts of the tomb; Where, undeplored, I droop and pine, Far from the princes of my line, Doomed the cold soil and scentless air, With flowers of low degree to share. And hear, ye plants of noble birth! Amid these creatures of the earth, The meanest of the worthless train, That springs unbidden on the plain, Claims my high name, and dares to trace "Where is the flower whose heavenly balm Has power, like mine, the soul to calm ? For man the cup of life I fill, Gifted the storms of time to still; Or bid the bark of human life Sail on, regardless of the strife, While the charm'd wanderer fondly dreams As music from some Eden shore *. "No! never yet did climes like this, "Oh! for the regions of the sun, There, like my sires, my course to run With all who wear the silver wreath, * From the pleasurable effects produced by the use of opium, take the following passage from the "Confessions of an English Opium-eater," descriptive of the feelings of the writer, when he first began to indulge in the frequent use of this soothing but pernicious drug: "It seemed to me as if then first I stood at a distance and aloof from the uproar of life; as if the tumult, the fever, and the strife, were suspended; a respite granted from the secret burdens of the heart; a sabbath of repose; a resting-place from human labours. Here were the hopes which blossomed in the paths of life, reconciled with the peace which is in the grave; motions of the intellect unwearied as the heavens, yet for all anxieties a halcyon calm." She said, and breathed her sighs around, That sister flower of humbler fame, "Proud offspring of that sun-bright land, Though lovelier hues may tinge the flowers 6 The opiate dew' thy leaves unfold; And many a hapless wretch hath quaff"d Thy poisoned cup prepares for all The despot's voice may doom to fall *. * From the poppy was prepared the fatal draught which the emperors (of the East) employed to destroy such persons whom they did not dare take off in public. Such were the means which Aurengzebe used to dispatch his Oh! turn thee to that orient clime "And vain thy boast to chase away nephew Sepe Chekough, and others his relations, in the fortress of Gualiar. "The poust," says Bernier, "is the first thing brought to them in the morning, and they have nothing given them to eat till they have drunk a great cup full of it. This emaciates them exceedingly, and maketh them die insensibly; they losing, little by little, their strength and understanding, and growing torpid and senseless."-Pennant's Outlines of the Globe. Mad. Genlis observes of the poust: "C'est ce breuvage mortel que les tyrans de ce pays font prendre à leurs frères et aux princes de leur sang, et qui suivant la dose, les rend imbécilles ou les fait mourir." * For the unhappy consequences of the excessive use of opium, see "Confessions of an Opium-eater:" "I am now arrived at an Iliad of woes; for I have now to record the pains of opium, |