The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-10-19

Indian in all of it's coloring and in all its
logue of Akbar with only FAIL for his aud
itor:
But come,
Ny noble friend. my faithful counselor,
SIT by my side While thou art one with me
In the Kings garden, gathering here and there
But in due time for every Mussulman,
R ESah! LIN an w R1dShIs So GSri Is ain s n Parsee'
To drive
A people from their ancient fold Of Faith.
And wall them up. ~perforce, in mine-unwise,
Unkinglike-and the morning OF my reign.
Was %redden'd by that cloud of shame when L
/ hate the rancor Of their castles and creeds.
No revenue from the field of unbelief.
Gull from every faith and race the best
And bravest soul for counselor and friend
1 Ioathe the very name of inhdeI.
l stagger at the Koran and the sword.
/ shudder at the Christian and the stake.
Unfortunately space will not allow but
one more quotation from this beautiful
poem. and that is the substance of Akbar's
dream expressed in these words:
l dr~eam'd-thou knowest how deep a well of love
My heart is for my son, Saleem, mine heir
And yet so wild and hayward that my dream
That, stone by stone, 1 rear'd a sacred fame,
A temple. neither Pagod, Mosque nor Church,
nut tOlIleT, ElfupleIs dlWdSS ODeD-uODI u
To every breath from heaven, and Truth ana
But while we stood rejoicing. i and thou.
1 heard a mocking laugh 1.-The new Koran!'
4bou' on tb sne spe laW tS Sne f miIn bs q Sry' me, and then
Me. too. the black-wing'd Azrael overcame.
And those that follow'd. loosen. stone from
All my fair work; and from the ruin arose
The shrek and curse Of trampled millions, even
As in the time before; but while I sroan'd'
From out the sunset pour'd an alien race,
Who fitted stone to stone again, and Truth,
Peace. Love and Justice came and dwelt therein
Fires of Suffice, nor wall Of baby-wife,
Or Indian widow; and in sleep l said;
MY mission be accomplish d." but we hear
Music: our palace is awake, and morn
From off the rosy cheek of waking Day.
Think what a privilege 1t was that bril-
liant January afternoon upon the very
spot and beside FAILS tomb and Merriam's
little palace and Akbar's mighty throne,
with the ghosts Of FAIL, Merriam and
| Akbar for listeners, to read aloud, line by
| line and word by word. this lovely poem.
| the product of Tennyson's magnificent old
! agei
If, now, we will recur to 1.-THE Palac of
| Art and put ourselves in the place OF the
| Ulemas and other dignitaries of Islam who
surrounded Akbar in his lifetime, who
after his death murdered FAIL and restored
the old religion, we shall find a curious
coincidence in the outcome of Akbar's re-
forms and the fate of the builder Of Ten
nyson's palace of Art" Remember we
are now looking at Akbar with the eyes Of
a Mussulman. Here, again, we quote from
the poem OF 1880:
And so she throve and prosper'd; so three years
She .prosper'd; on the fourth she fell,
Like Herod, when the shout was in his ears,
Stuck thro' with pangs Of hell.
Lest she should fail and perish utterly,
God. before whom ever lie bare
The abysmal deeps of Personality,
Plagued her with sore despair.
So, when four years were wholly finished,
She threw her royal robes away;
Make me a cottage in the vale" she said,
Where 1 may mourn and pray"
If we substitute for the word -four" a
score of years and remember that she
throughout the poem refers to the godlike
brain of the builder and recall it's upper
collapse, as well as the collapse Of Akbar's
eclectic religion and other reforms, we
shall be impressed. to say the least, with
the striking coincidence between the two
At Sickandra that afternoon, upon my re-
turn, 1 found the coffin of Akbar, but in
quired in vain for that of his Christian
wife.
III.
In addition to the foregoing two poems
that afternoon, as 1 stood dazed by the
wonders, part Hindoo and part Saracenic
of this glorious palace, some other Indiar
lines Of the great poet rose, unbidden, Il
my lips. Who does not recall that won
derful passage in the first "Locksley Hail.
All, for some retreat
Deep in yonder shining Orient. where my lf
Where in wild Mahratta battle fell my fathe
evil-starr'd-
I was left a trampIed orphan and a selfish uncle
Or to burst all links of habit-there to wande
far away,
On from island unto island at the gateways o
the day.
Breaths Of tropic shade and palms in cluster
Never comes the trader, never floats a Euro
pean flag,
the trailer from the crag;
Drops the heavy-blossom'd bower. hangs tn
summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purpl
spheres of sea.
These marvellous lines have all the fir
[ and color and accuracy of Kipling an
{ vastly more beauty. I look upon Kiplinl
| as by far the best delineator of Indian life
character and scenery who has ever take
pen to paper.
And who has not asked the question
l Where was it that Enoch Arden wa
3 wrecked? Clearly upon the coast o
Ceylon or one Of the Celebes isles. TIL
l following is almost, if not quite, a photo
: graph:
!. The mountain wooded to the peak. the lawns
p And winding glades high up like ways to HEAVIER
The slender coco's dropping crown OF plumes,
Z The lightning flash of insect and of bird,
The luster of the long convolvuluses
That coiI'd around the stately stems, and ran
I Ev'n TO the limit of the land. the glows
a And glories of the broad belt OF the world.
The sunrise broken into scarlet shafts.
4 Among the palms and ferns and precipices;
The blaze upon the waters TO the east;
The blaze upon the island overhead;
The blaze upon the waters TO the west;
Then the great stars that gIoped themselves
heaven,
The scarlet shafts of sunrise-but no sail.
. 1.-THE Lotos Eaters IS usually classed a
one of Tennyson's Greek poems. 1t
r founded upon a w~ell-known passage froI
Homer's odyssey" But, as that poem
n wholly imaginary, 1t is a matter OF gray
r deubt whether there ever was such a pei
n son as Ulysses. We may well questio
whether the blind old bard ever intende
- 1ooata tho land of the IotOs Eaters