Zóphiël ; or, the bride of seven

Beneath that dome reclined the youthful king
Upon a silver couch, and soothed to mood
As free and soft as perfumes from the wing
Of bird that shook the jasmines as it wooed,

Couches of gold and silver were not uncommon among the Median and Persian princes.

The white and yellow jessamine is now found growing in abundance about Mount Casius, intermixed with laurels, myrtles, and other delightful shrubs.

Its fitful song the mingling murmur meeting
Of marble founts of many a fair device,
And bees that banquet, from the sun retreating,
In every full, deep flower that crowns his paradise.

The Medes and Persians were accustomed to retire to delicious gardens, which were called paradises.

Josephus, speaking of a powerful Babylonian king, says, “He erected elevated places, for walking, of stone, and made them resemble mountains; and built them so that they might be planted with all sorts of trees. He also erected what was called a pensile paradise, because his wife was desirous to have things like her own country, she having been bred up in the palaces of Media.”

The same custom is still continued in the East, where people of distinction pass their most pleasant hours in the pavilions or kiosks of their gardens.

University of Virginia Library

VIII.