To snatch the Rayahs1 from their fate.
So let them ease their hearts with prate
Of equal rights, which man ne'er knew;
I have a love for freedom too.

Aye! let me like the ocean-Patriarch 2 roam,
Or only know on land the Tartar's home! 3
My tent on shore, my galley on the sea,

Are more than cities and Serais to me:
Borne by my steed, or wafted by my sail,

Across the desert, or before the gale,

870

Bound where thou wilt, my barb! or glide, my prow!
But be the Star that guides the wanderer, Thou!
Thou, my Zuleika, share and bless my bark;
The Dove of peace and promise to mine ark !5
Or, since that hope denied in worlds of strife,
Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray !

880

1. "Rayahs,"-all who pay the capitation tax, called the "Haratch."

["This tax was levied on the whole male unbelieving population," except children under ten, old men, Christian and Jewish priests.Finlay, Greece under Othoman Domination, 1856, p. 26. See, too, the Qur'an, cap. ix., "The Declaration of Immunity."]

2. This first of voyages is one of the few with which the Mussulmans profess much acquaintance.

3. The wandering life of the Arabs, Tartars, and Turkomans, will be found well detailed in any book of Eastern travels. That it possesses a charm peculiar to itself, cannot be denied. A young French renegado confessed to Châteaubriand, that he never found himself alone, galloping in the desert, without a sensation approaching to rapture which was indescribable.

4. [Inns, caravanserais. From saray, a palace or inn]

5. [The remaining seventy lines of stanza xx. were not included in the original MS., but were sent to the publisher in successive instalments while the poem was passing through the press.]

6. [In the first draft of a supplementary fragment, line 883 ran thus

“And tints tomorrow with {

A note was appended-
"Mr. M. Choose which of the 2

fancied } ray."

an airy

epithets 'fancied' or 'airy'

Blest-as the Muezzin's strain from Mecca's wall

To pilgrims pure and prostrate at his call;

Soft-as the melody of youthful days,

That steals the trembling tear of speechless praise;
Dear-as his native song to Exile's ears,

i. Of lines 886-889, two, if not three, variants were sent to the publisher

(1) Dear as the Melody of better days

That steals the trembling tear of speechless praise-
Sweet as his native song to Exile's ears

Shall sound each tone thy long-loved voice endears.—

(2) { Dear}

That steals

better

as the melody of {buttful} days

[December 2, 1813.)

{the trembling} tear of speckless praise

may be best-or if neither will do-tell me and I will dream another

"Yours,

་་
"BN"

The epithet ("prophetic ") which stands in the text was inserted in a revise dated December 3, 1813. Two other versions were also sent, that Gifford might select that which was 66 best, or rather not worst"

"And {sinds}

the hope of morning with its ray."

"And gilds to-morrow's hope with heavenly ray.”

(Letters, 1898, ii. 282.)

On the same date, December 3rd, two additional lines were affixed to the quatrain (lines 886-889)--

"Soft as the Mecca Muezzin's strains invite

Him who hath journeyed far to join the vite." And in a later revise, as "a last alteration "—

"Blest as the call which from Medina's dome Invites devotion to her Prophet's tomb." An erased version of this "last alteration" ran thus

"Blest as the Muezzin's strain from Mecca's dome

Which welcomes Faith to view her Prophet's tomb." ]

[It is probable that Byron, who did not trouble himself to dis. tinguish between "lie" and "lay," and who, as the MS. of English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers (see line 732, Poetical Works, 1898, i. 355) reveals, pronounced "petit maître" anglicé in four syllables, regarded "dome" (vide supra) as a true and exact rhyme to "tomb," but, with his wonted compliance, was persuaded to make yet another alteration.]

Shall sound each tone thy long-loved voice endears.

For thee in those bright isles is built a bower

890

Blooming as Aden1 in its earliest hour.

A thousand swords, with Selim's heart and hand,
Wait-wave-defend-destroy-at thy command!
Girt by my band, Zuleika at my side,

The spoil of nations shall bedeck my bride.
The Haram's languid years of listless ease
Are well resigned for cares-for joys like these:
Not blind to Fate, I see, where'er I rove,
Unnumbered perils,—but one only love!
Yet well my toils shall that fond breast repay,
Though Fortune frown, or falser friends betray.
How dear the dream in darkest hours of ill,
Should all be changed, to find thee faithful still!
Be but thy soul, like Selim's firmly shown;
To thee be Selim's tender as thine own;

To soothe each sorrow, share in each delight,"
Blend every thought, do all-but disunite!
Once free, 'tis mine our horde again to guide;
Friends to each other, foes to aught beside : 2
Yet there we follow but the bent assigned
By fatal Nature to man's warring kind: ii.

i. Wait on thy voice and bow at thy command.-[MS.]
ii. Oh turn and mingle every thought with his,
And all our future days unite in this.—[MS.]
iii. Man I may lead but trust not—I may fall
By those now friends to me, yet foes to all-
In this they follow but the bent assigned,

By fatal Nature to our warring kind.—[MS.]

66

900

910

1. "Jannat-al-Aden," the perpetual abode, the Mussulman paradise. [See Sale's Koran, Preliminary Discourse," sect. i.; and Journal, November 17, 1813, Letters, 1898, ii. 326.]

2. ["You wanted some reflections, and I send you per Selim, eighteen lines in decent couplets, of a pen-ive, if not an ethical tendency. . . . Mr. Canning's approbation (if he did approve) I need not say makes me proud."-Letter to Murray, November 23, 1813, Letters, 1898, ii. 286.]

Mark! where his carnage and his conquests cease!
He makes a solitude, and calls it-peace! 1
I like the rest must use my skill or strength,
But ask no land beyond my sabre's length:
Power sways but by division-her resource
The blest alternative of fraud or force!
Ours be the last; in time Deceit may come
When cities cage us in a social home:

ii.

There ev'n thy soul might err-how oft the heart 920
Corruption shakes which Peril could not part!
And Woman, more than Man, when Death or Woe,
Or even Disgrace, would lay her lover low,
Sunk in the lap of Luxury will shame-
Away suspicion !-not Zuleika's name !
But life is hazard at the best; and here
No more remains to win, and much to fear:
Yes, fear the doubt, the dread of losing thee,
By Osman's power, and Giaffir's stern decree.
That dread shall vanish with the favouring gale,
Which Love to-night hath promised to my sail : i.
No danger daunts the pair his smile hath blest,
Their steps still roving, but their hearts at rest.
With thee all toils are sweet, each clime hath charms;
Earth-sea alike our world within our arms!

i. Behold a wilderness and call it peace.-[MS. erased.]
Look round our earth and lo! where battles cease,
"Behold a Solitude and call it" peace.-[MS.]

or, Mark even where Conquest's deeds of carnage cease

930

She leaves a solitude and calls it peace.-[November 21, 1813.] [For the final alteration to the present text, see letter to Murray of November 24, 1813.]

ii. Power sways but by distrust—her sole source.—[MS. erased.] iii. Which Love to-night hath lent by swelling sail.—[MS.]

1. [Compare Tacitus, Agricola, cap. 30—

"Solitudinem faciunt-pacem appellant."

See letter to Murray, November 24, 1813, Letters, 1898, ii. 287.]

Aye-let the loud winds whistle o'er the deck,1
So that those arms cling closer round my neck:
The deepest murmur of this lip shall be,12
No sigh for safety, but a prayer for thee !
The war of elements no fears impart

940

To Love, whose deadliest bane is human Art:
There lie the only rocks our course can check;
Here moments menace-there are years of wreck !
But hence ye thoughts that rise in Horror's shape!
This hour bestows, or ever bars escape.".
Few words remain of mine my tale to close;
Of thine but one to waft us from our foes;
Yea-foes-to me will Giaffir's hate decline?
And is not Osman, who would part us, thine?

XXI.

"His head and faith from doubt and death
Returned in time my guard to save;
Few heard, none told, that o'er the wave
From isle to isle I roved the while :
And since, though parted from my band
Too seldom now I leave the land,

i. Then if my lip once murmurs, it must be.-[MS.]
ii. This hour decides my doom or thy escape.-[MS.]

1. [Compare

"Quam juvat immites ventos audire cubantem,
Et dominam tenero detinuisse sinu."

950

Tibullus, Eleg., Lib. I. i. 45, 46.] 2. [The omission of lines 938, 939 drew from Byron an admission (Letter to Murray, November 29, 1813) that "the passage is an imitation altogether from Medea in Ovid " (Metamorph., vii. 66-69)— "My love possest, in Jason's bosom laid, Let seas swell high ;-I cannot be dismay'd While I infold my husband in my arms: Or should I fear, I should but fear his harms."

Englished by Sandys, 1632.]