7 quotes
Why rush the thousands? Why this grand display
Of pomp and pride? A widow burns today!
Excursions in India (1832)
It is some jubilee;—it cannot be,
That death is hailed with such a savage glee.
Excursions in India (1832)
Thinks, like a phoenix, ’tis her fate to rise
Pure from her ashes, to adorn the skies.
Excursions in India (1832)
The pipe, the viol, and unceasing drum,
Proclaim to all, the blooming bride is come!
Excursions in India (1832)
Heroes have shrunk before the torture’s wheel,
And ev’n in martyrdom have stooped to feel.
Yet here, each day, in agonising fires,
For sinful man some gentle dame expires.
Excursions in India (1832)
Death had gone over like a wild simoom,
And marked her youthful husband for the tomb.
And must he only suffer? Still the pride
Of youth and beauty lives, the lovely bride.
She, too, must die: some savage god, unknown
To Christian climes, demands her for his own.
Excursions in India (1832)
What joy is breaking from her large dark eye—
The vivid lightnings of a tropic sky!
The rosy veil is archly drawn aside
To show the glances she affects to hide.
’Tis all a modest maiden dare betray—
The sudden sparkle of a meteor’s play.
Excursions in India (1832)