Page:Landon in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book 1836.pdf/19



This song alludes to a well-known superstition among the young Hindoo girls. They make a little boat out of a cocoa-nut shell, place a small lamp and flowers within this tiny ark of the heart, and launch it upon the Ganges. If it float out of sight with its lamp still burning, the omen is prosperous; if it sinks, the love of which it questions, is ill-fated.

on—float on—my haunted bark, Above the midnight tide; Bear softly o’er the waters dark The hopes that with thee glide.

Float on—float on—thy freight is flowers, And every flower reveals The dreaming of my lonely hours, The hope my spirit feels.

Float on—float on—thy shining lamp, The light of love, is there; If lost beneath the waters damp, That love must then despair.

Float on—beneath the moonlight float The sacred billows o’er: Ah, some kind spirit guards my boat, For it has gained the shore.