MOONLIGHT
ON THE BOSPHORUS.
("La
lune était sereine.")
{X.,
September, 1828.}
Bright
shone the merry moonbeams dancing o'er the wave;
At the
cool casement, to the evening breeze flung wide,
Leans
the Sultana, and delights to watch the tide,
With
surge of silvery sheen, yon sleeping islets lave.
From
her hand, as it falls, vibrates the light guitar.
She
listens—hark! that sound that echoes dull and low.
Is it
the beat upon the Archipelago
Of
some long galley's oar, from Scio bound afar?
Is it
the cormorants, whose black wings, one by one,
Cut
the blue wave that o'er them breaks in liquid pearls?
Is it
some hovering sprite with whistling scream that hurls
Down
to the deep from yon old tower a loosened stone?
Who
thus disturbs the tide near the seraglio?
'Tis no
dark cormorants that on the ripple float,
'Tis
no dull plume of stone—no oars of Turkish boat,
With
measured beat along the water creeping slow.
'Tis
heavy sacks, borne each by voiceless dusky slaves;
And
could you dare to sound the depths of yon dark tide,
Something
like human form would stir within its side.
Bright
shone the merry moonbeams dancing o'er the wave.
JOHN
L. O'SULLIVAN.
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