# Landon in The Literary Gazette 1822/Manmadin

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Literary Gazette, 14th December, 1822, Pages 793-794
ORIGINAL POETRY.
FRAGMENTS IN RHYME.
VII. - Manmadin, the Indian Cupid, floating down the Ganges.*
There is a darkness on the sky, And the troubled waves run high, And the lightning flash is breaking, And the thunder peal is waking; Reddening meteors, strange and bright, Cross the rainbow's timid light, As if mingled hope and fear, Storm and sunshine, shook the sphere. Tempest winds rush fierce along Bearing yet a sound of song; Music's on the tempest's wing, Wafting thee, young Manmadin! Pillowed on a lotus flower, Gathered in a summer hour, Rides he o'er the mountain wave Which would be a tall ship's grave! At his back his bow is slung, Sugar-cane, with wild bees strung,— Bees born with the buds of spring, Yet with each a deadly sting;—
Grasping in his infant hand Arrows in their silken band, Each made of a signal flower, Emblem of its varied power; Some formed of the silver leaf Of the almond, bright and brief, Just a frail and lovely thing, For but one hour's flourishing; Others, on whose shaft there glows The red beauty of the rose; Some in spring's half-folded bloom, Some in summer's full perfume; Some with withered leaves and sere, Falling with the falling year; Some bright with the rainbow-dyes Of the tulip's vanities; Some, bound with the lily's bell, Breathe of love, that dares not tell Its sweet feelings; the dark leaves Of the ocynum, which grieves Droopingly, round some were bound; Others were with tendrils wound Of the green and laughing vine,— And the barb was dipp'd in wine. But all these are summer ills, Like the tree whose stem distils Balm beneath its pleasant shade In the wounds its thorns have made. Though the flowers may fade and die, 'Tis but a light penalty. All these bloom-clad darts are meant But for a short-lived content!— Yet one arrow has a power Lasting till life's latest hour—
Weary day and sleepless night, Lightning gleams of fierce delight, Fragrant and yet poisoned sighs, Agonies and ecstasies; Hopes, like fires amid the gloom, Lighting only to consume! Happiness one hasty draught, And the lip has venom quaffed. Doubt, despairing, crime and craft, Are upon that honied shaft! It has made the crowned king Crouch beneath his suffering; Made the beauty's cheek more pale Than the foldings of her veil; Like a child, the soldier kneel Who had mocked at flame or steel; Bade the fires of genius turn On their own breasts, and there burn; A wound, a blight, a curse, a doom, Bowing young hearts to the tomb! Well may storm be on the sky, And the waters roll on high, When Manmadin passes by. Earth below and heaven above Well may bend to thee, oh Love!
* ↑ *Camdeo, or Manmadin, the Indian Cupid, is pictured in Ackermann's pretty work on Hindostan in another form. He is riding a green parrot, his bow of sugar cane, the cord of bees, and his arrows all sorts of flowers; but one alone is headed, and the head covered with honey-comb.
* ↑ This poem appears in The Improvisatrice and Other Poems (1824)
* ↑ The erratum shown here from the following week has been actioned
* ↑ Literary Gazette, 21st December, 1822, Pages 812 Erratum.—In the Sketch of Manmadin last week, for esignum, read ocynum.
* ↑ signature follows next poem