Studies at Delhi

i. The Hindu Ascetic

Here as I sit by the Jumna bank,
Watching the flow of the sacred stream,
Pass me the legions, rank on rank,
And the cannon roar, and the bayonets gleam.

Is it a god or a king that comes?
Both are evil, and both are strong;
With women and worshipping, dancing and drums,
Carry your gods and your kings along.

Fanciful shapes of a plastic earth,
These are the visions that weary the eye;
These I may 'scape by a luckier birth,
Musing, and fasting, and hoping to die.

When shall these phantoms flicker away
Like the smoke of the guns on the wind-swept hill,
Like the sounds and colours of yesterday:
And the soul have rest, and the air be still?

ii. Badminton

Hardly a shot from the gate we storm'd,
Under the Moree battlement's shade;
Close to the glacis our game was form'd,
There had the fight been, and there we play'd.

Lightly the demoiselles titter'd and leapt,
Merrily caper'd the players all;
North, was the garden where Nicholson slept,
South, was the sweep of a batter'd wall.

Near me a Musalman, civil and mild,
Watch'd as the shuttlecocks rose and fell;
And he said, as he counted his beads and smiled,
'God smite their souls to the depths of hell.'