Page:The Bengali Book of English Verse.djvu/71

Rh Sinks down immediate. Sudden from the glade, A spectral, hollow, long-repeated cry Of wild ducks in alarm comes loud and shrill, Blent with the famished jackal's harsher voice, As ruthlessly that tyrant's steps pursue These harmless dwellers of the tangled brakes. Soft spread the dews upon the fragrant earth, Beading with orient pearls the silken grass, And emerald leaves of trees upon the banks That bound with green the dim horizon's verge, On every side, save that in which the stream Loses itself amid the bending sky. How pleasant now, at ease reclined to mark The sombre shadows of each varying tree: The mangoe here, with countless leaves adorned, Casts densest shade, and there the towering palm Mirrors its length. The scented baubool next With fragrant yellow flowers and clust'ring leaves, Bends o'er the wave to see its image fair. One mass of green the trees far off appear, And cast new shadows on the flood below. The ample Ghaut its thousand pillars rears In the dim moonshine, looking vast and pale, Untenanted and cold, sublimely grand; And the high temple with its upward points, Shaded by moonlight like a phantom, looms In dim mysterious beauty. At this time, The spirit of eternal peace seems thrown On every object, and the rudest breast Is filled with pure and unimpassioned thoughts. May such a calmness in my dying hour Encircle me, while those I dearly love Stand by—not mourning—and may my passing soul Partake in that mysterious, awful time The peace and stillness of the scene around.