Baron George Gordon Byron Byron

“ Flash’d an expression more of pride than ire,
And love than either; and there would arise
A something in them which was not desire,
But would have been, perhaps, but for the soul
Which struggled through and chasten’d down the whole.
Her glossy hair was cluster’d o’er a brow
Bright with intelligence, and fair, and smooth;
Her eyebrow’s shape was like th’ aerial bow,
Her cheek all purple with the beam of youth,
Mounting at times to a transparent glow,
As if her veins ran lightning; she, in sooth,
Possess’d an air and grace by no means common:
Her stature tall—I hate a dumpy woman. ”

“ Of such a throne as is the proudest station,
Though despots know it not—till the progression
Of freedom shall complete their education.
’Tis not mere splendour makes the show august
To eye or heart—it is the people’s trust.
There, too, he saw (whate’er he may be now)
A Prince, the prince of princes at the time,
With fascination in his very bow,
And full of promise, as the spring of prime.
Though royalty was written on his brow,
He had then the grace, too, rare in every clime,
Of being, without alloy of fop or beau,
A finish’d gentleman from top to toe. ”

“ The Scian and the Teian muse,
The hero’s harp, the lover’s lute,
Have found the fame your shores refuse;
Their place of birth alone is mute
To sounds which echo further west
Than your sires’ ‘Islands of the Blest.’
The mountains look on Marathon—
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dream’d that Greece might still be free;
For standing on the Persians’ grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.
A king sate on the rocky brow
Which looks o’er sea-born Salamis;
And ships, by thousands, lay below,
And men in nations;—all were his! ”

“ I’ve nothing to reproach, or to request.
‘Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart,
’Tis woman’s whole existence; man may range
The court, camp, church, the vessel, and the mart;
Sword, gown, gain, glory, offer in exchange
Pride, fame, ambition, to fill up his heart,
And few there are whom these cannot estrange;
Men have all these resources, we but one,
To love again, and be again undone.
‘You will proceed in pleasure, and in pride,
Beloved and loving many; all is o’er
For me on earth, except some years to hide
My shame and sorrow deep in my heart’s core ”

“ If souls could die, had perish’d in that passion,—
But by degrees their senses were restored,
Again to be o’ercome, again to dash on;
And, beating ’gainst his bosom, Haidee’s heart
Felt as if never more to beat apart.
Alas! they were so young, so beautiful,
So lonely, loving, helpless, and the hour
Was that in which the heart is always full,
And, having o’er itself no further power,
Prompts deeds eternity can not annul,
But pays off moments in an endless shower
Of hell-fire—all prepared for people giving
Pleasure or pain to one another living.
Alas! for Juan and Haidee! ”

“ Lights came at length, and men, and maids, who found
An awkward spectacle their eyes before;
Antonia in hysterics, Julia swoon’d,
Alfonso leaning, breathless, by the door;
Some half-torn drapery scatter’d on the ground,
Some blood, and several footsteps, but no more:
Juan the gate gain’d, turn’d the key about,
And liking not the inside, lock’d the out.
Here ends this canto.—Need I sing, or say,
How Juan naked, favour’d by the night,
Who favours what she should not, found his way,
And reach’d his home in an unseemly plight? ”

“ Juan, and shuddering o’er his frame would creep;
And Haidee’s sweet lips murmur’d like a brook
A wordless music, and her face so fair
Stirr’d with her dream, as rose-leaves with the air.
Or as the stirring of a deep dear stream
Within an Alpine hollow, when the wind
Walks o’er it, was she shaken by the dream,
The mystical usurper of the mind—
O’erpowering us to be whate’er may seem
Good to the soul which we no more can bind;
Strange state of being! (for ’tis still to be)
Senseless to feel, and with seal’d eyes to see.
She dream’d of being alone on the sea-shore,
Chain’d to a rock ”

“ Ave Maria! o’er the earth and sea,
That heavenliest hour of Heaven is worthiest thee!
Ave Maria! blessed be the hour!
The time, the clime, the spot, where I so oft
Have felt that moment in its fullest power
Sink o’er the earth so beautiful and soft,
While swung the deep bell in the distant tower,
Or the faint dying day-hymn stole aloft,
And not a breath crept through the rosy air,
And yet the forest leaves seem’d stirr’d with prayer.
Ave Maria! ’tis the hour of prayer!
Ave Maria! ’tis the hour of love!
Ave Maria! may our spirits dare
Look up to thine and to thy Son’s above! ”

“ Gush from the earth until the land runs o’er;
But there, too, many a poison-tree has root,
And midnight listens to the lion’s roar,
And long, long deserts scorch the camel’s foot,
Or heaving whelm the helpless caravan;
And as the soil is, so the heart of man.
Afric is all the sun’s, and as her earth
Her human day is kindled; full of power
For good or evil, burning from its birth,
The Moorish blood partakes the planet’s hour,
And like the soil beneath it will bring forth:
Beauty and love were Haidee’s mother’s dower ”

“ Juan slept like a top, or like the dead,
Who sleep at last, perhaps (God only knows) ,
Just for the present; and in his lull’d head
Not even a vision of his former woes
Throbb’d in accursed dreams, which sometimes spread
Unwelcome visions of our former years,
Till the eye, cheated, opens thick with tears.
Young Juan slept all dreamless:—but the maid,
Who smooth’d his pillow, as she left the den
Look’d back upon him, and a moment stay’d,
And turn’d, believing that he call’d again. ”

“ And slight, so very slight, that to the mind
’Twas but a doubt; but ne’er magician’s wand
Wrought change with all Armida’s fairy art
Like what this light touch left on Juan’s heart.
And if she met him, though she smiled no more,
She look’d a sadness sweeter than her smile,
As if her heart had deeper thoughts in store
She must not own, but cherish’d more the while
For that compression in its burning core;
Even innocence itself has many a wile,
And will not dare to trust itself with truth,
And love is taught hypocrisy from youth. ”

“ Which makes not others smile; then turn’d aside:
Whatever feeling shook her, it seem’d short,
And master’d by her wisdom or her pride;
When Juan spoke, too—it might be in sport—
Of this their mutual feeling, she replied—
‘If it should be so,—but—it cannot be—
Or I at least shall not survive to see.’
Juan would question further, but she press’d
His lip to hers, and silenced him with this,
And then dismiss’d the omen from her breast,
Defying augury with that fond kiss;
And no doubt of all methods ’tis the best:
Some people prefer wine—’tis not amiss ”

“ So deep an anguish wrung Gulbeyaz’ brow:
Her cheek turn’d ashes, ears rung, brain whirl’d round,
As if she had received a sudden blow,
And the heart’s dew of pain sprang fast and chilly
O’er her fair front, like Morning’s on a lily.
Although she was not of the fainting sort,
Baba thought she would faint, but there he err’d—
It was but a convulsion, which though short
Can never be described; we all have heard,
And some of us have felt thus ‘all amort,’
When things beyond the common have occurr’d;—
Gulbeyaz proved in that brief agony
What she could ne’er express—then how should I? ”

“ Corruption came not in each mind to kill
All hope; to look upon her sweet face bred
New thoughts of life, for it seem’d full of soul—
She had so much, earth could not claim the whole.
The ruling passion, such as marble shows
When exquisitely chisell’d, still lay there,
But fix’d as marble’s unchanged aspect throws
O’er the fair Venus, but for ever fair;
O’er the Laocoon’s all eternal throes,
And ever-dying Gladiator’s air,
Their energy like life forms all their fame,
Yet looks not life, for they are still the same. ”

“ For I disdain to write an Atalantis;
But ’tis as well at once to understand,
You are not a moral people, and you know it
Without the aid of too sincere a poet.
What Juan saw and underwent shall be
My topic, with of course the due restriction
Which is required by proper courtesy;
And recollect the work is only fiction,
And that I sing of neither mine nor me,
Though every scribe, in some slight turn of diction,
Will hint allusions never meant. Ne’er doubt
This—when I speak, I don’t hint, but speak out. ”

“ Baba retire, which he obey’d in style,
As if well used to the retreating trade;
And taking hints in good part all the while,
He whisper’d Juan not to be afraid,
And looking on him with a sort of smile,
Took leave, with such a face of satisfaction
As good men wear who have done a virtuous action.
When he was gone, there was a sudden change:
I know not what might be the lady’s thought,
But o’er her bright brow flash’d a tumult strange,
And into her dear cheek the blood was brought,
Blood-red as sunset summer clouds which range
The verge of Heaven ”

“ Whether my verse’s fame be doom’d to cease
While the right hand which wrote it still is able,
Or of some centuries to take a lease,
The grass upon my grave will grow as long,
And sigh to midnight winds, but not to song.
Of poets who come down to us through distance
Of time and tongues, the foster-babes of Fame,
Life seems the smallest portion of existence;
Where twenty ages gather o’er a name,
’Tis as a snowball which derives assistance
From every flake, and yet rolls on the same,
Even till an iceberg it may chance to grow;
But, after all, ’tis nothing but cold snow. ”

“ Such is the shortest way to general curses.
They hate a murderer much less than a claimant
On that sweet ore which every body nurses;—
Kill a man’s family, and he may brook it,
But keep your hands out of his breeches’ pocket.
So said the Florentine: ye monarchs, hearken
To your instructor. Juan now was borne,
Just as the day began to wane and darken,
O’er the high hill, which looks with pride or scorn
Toward the great city.—Ye who have a spark in
Your veins of Cockney spirit, smile or mourn
According as you take things well or ill;—
Bold Britons, we are now on Shooter’s Hill! ”

“ Just as a languid smile began to flatter
His peace was making, but before he ventured
Further, old Baba rather briskly enter’d.
‘Bride of the Sun! and Sister of the Moon!’
(’Twas thus he spake) ‘and Empress of the Earth!
Whose frown would put the spheres all out of tune,
Whose smile makes all the planets dance with mirth,
Your slave brings tidings—he hopes not too soon—
Which your sublime attention may be worth:
The Sun himself has sent me like a ray,
To hint that he is coming up this way.’
‘Is it,’ exclaim’d Gulbeyaz, ‘as you say? ”

“ Few angles were there in her form, ’tis true,
Thinner she might have been, and yet scarce lose;
Yet, after all, ’twould puzzle to say where
It would not spoil some separate charm to pare.
She was not violently lively, but
Stole on your spirit like a May-day breaking;
Her eyes were not too sparkling, yet, half-shut,
They put beholders in a tender taking;
She look’d (this simile ’s quite new) just cut
From marble, like Pygmalion’s statue waking,
The mortal and the marble still at strife,
And timidly expanding into life. ”

“ That finer, simpler music ne’er was heard;
The sort of sound we echo with a tear,
Without knowing why—an overpowering tone,
Whence Melody descends as from a throne.
And Juan gazed as one who is awoke
By a distant organ, doubting if he be
Not yet a dreamer, till the spell is broke
By the watchman, or some such reality,
Or by one’s early valet’s cursed knock;
At least it is a heavy sound to me,
Who like a morning slumber—for the night
Shows stars and women in a better light. ”

“ To no men are such cordial greetings given
As those whose wives have made them fit for heaven.
His Highness cast around his great black eyes,
And looking, as he always look’d, perceived
Juan amongst the damsels in disguise,
At which he seem’d no whit surprised nor grieved,
But just remark’d with air sedate and wise,
While still a fluttering sigh Gulbeyaz heaved,
‘I see you’ve bought another girl; ’tis pity
That a mere Christian should be half so pretty.’
This compliment, which drew all eyes upon
The new-bought virgin, made her blush and shake. ”

“ And whether coldness, pride, or virtue dignify
A woman, so she ’s good, what does it signify?
I hate a motive, like a lingering bottle
Which with the landlord makes too long a stand,
Leaving all-claretless the unmoisten’d throttle,
Especially with politics on hand;
I hate it, as I hate a drove of cattle,
Who whirl the dust as simooms whirl the sand;
I hate it, as I hate an argument,
A laureate’s ode, or servile peer’s ‘content.’
’Tis sad to hack into the roots of things,
They are so much intertwisted with the earth ”

“ I have no further claim on your young heart,
Mine is the victim, and would be again;
To love too much has been the only art
I used;—I write in haste, and if a stain
Be on this sheet, ’tis not what it appears;
My eyeballs burn and throb, but have no tears.
‘I loved, I love you, for this love have lost
State, station, heaven, mankind’s, my own esteem,
And yet can not regret what it hath cost,
So dear is still the memory of that dream ”

“ Well—Juan, after bathing in the sea,
Came always back to coffee and Haidee.
Both were so young, and one so innocent,
That bathing pass’d for nothing; Juan seem’d
To her, as ’twere, the kind of being sent,
Of whom these two years she had nightly dream’d,
A something to be loved, a creature meant
To be her happiness, and whom she deem’d
To render happy; all who joy would win
Must share it,—Happiness was born a twin. ”

“ Lord Henry and the Lady Adeline
Departed like the rest of their compeers,
The peerage, to a mansion very fine;
The Gothic Babel of a thousand years.
None than themselves could boast a longer line,
Where time through heroes and through beauties steers;
And oaks as olden as their pedigree
Told of their sires, a tomb in every tree.
A paragraph in every paper told
Of their departure: such is modern fame:
’Tis pity that it takes no farther hold
Than an advertisement, or much the same;
When, ere the ink be dry, the sound grows cold. ”

“ For Juan, who was somewhat fond of rest—
She came into the cave, but it was merely
To see her bird reposing in his nest;
And she would softly stir his locks so curly,
Without disturbing her yet slumbering guest,
Breathing all gently o’er his cheek and mouth,
As o’er a bed of roses the sweet south.
And every morn his colour freshlier came,
And every day help’d on his convalescence;
’Twas well, because health in the human frame
Is pleasant, besides being true love’s essence,
For health and idleness to passion’s flame
Are oil and gunpowder ”

“ But Juan never left them, while they had charms,
Unless compell’d by fate, or wave, or wind,
Or near relations, who are much the same.
But here he was!—where each tie that can bind
Humanity must yield to steel and flame:
And he whose very body was all mind,
Flung here by fate or circumstance, which tame
The loftiest, hurried by the time and place,
Dash’d on like a spurr’d blood-horse in a race. ”