Page:Poems, Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages.djvu/26



Mourns there a widow, bath'd in streaming tears? Stoops there a fire beneath the weight of years? Weeps there a maid, in pining sadness left. Of tender parents, and of hope, bereft? To Solima their sorrows they bewail; To Solima they pour their plaintive tale, She hears; and, radiant as the star of day, Through the thick forest gains her easy way: She asks what cares the joyless train oppress, What sickness wastes them, or what wants distress; And, as they mourn, she steals a tender sigh, Whilst all her soul sits melting in her eye: Then with a smile the healing balm bestows, And sheds a tear of pity o'er their woes, Which, as it drops, some soft-eyed angel bears.

When, chill'd with fear, the trembling pilgrim roves Through pathless deserts, and through tangled groves, Where mantling darkness spreads her dragon wing, And birds of death their fatal dirges sing, While vapours pale a dreadful glimmering cast, And thrilling horrour howls in every blast;