The Magic Mirror

The Magic Mirror

"One evening - `tis an eastern story ---

The lilly slept, the bat was flitting,
The sun, on clouds of crimson glory,
Was like an ancient sultan sitting;
The sky was dew, the air was balm,
The camels by the tents were grazing,
A pilgrim sat beneath a palm,
Upon the Western splendor gazing.

He plucked, in careless reverie,
A bud beside him; was't a flame,
That quivered on his startled eye?
From earth the little lustre came.
He lisped a prayer, and half in terror,
(The night had just began to close in)
Dug up the turf and found a mirror,
And hid the sparkler in his bosom.

Next morn, `ere Sol's first ray had shot,
The pilgrim gazed upon his treasure;
The edge with mystic shapes was wrought,
Wreathed in a dance of love and pleasure.
But in the centre was the wonder;
His face with youth and beauty shone!
Old Time had yielded up is plunder -
By Allah! fifty years were gone.

His hour of precious gazing o'er,
The pilgrim strayed to Bagdad city:
Then sat him by a Kiosk door,
And tuned his pipe, and sang his ditty;
But not a soul would stop to listen, -
At last an ancient dame passed by, ---
She saw by chance, the mirror glisten,
Stopped, gazed, and saw her wrinkles fly!

A dozen like herself soon gazed,
And each beheld a blooming beauty;
The story through the city blazed,
Their alms were but a Moslem's duty;
The men and maids by thousands gathered,
Each visage won the rose's dye;
The pilgrim's nest was quickly feathered,
The mirror's name was - Flattery."

Unattributed

2:4, p. 27

1828.04.18