Was but the menace which flung back
On him the torments of thy rack;
The fate thou didst so well foresee,
30 But would not to appease him tell;
And in thy Silence was his Sentence,
And in his Soul a vain repentance,
And evil dread so ill dissembled,

That in his hand the lightnings trembled.

III.

35 Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,
To render with thy precept less

The sum of human wretchedness,
And strengthen Man with his own mind;
But baffled as thou wert from high,

40 Still in thy patient energy,

In the endurance, and repulse

Of thine impenetrable Spirit,

Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse,

A mighty lesson we inherit:

45 Thou art a symbol and a sign

To Mortals of their fate and force;

Like thee, Man is in part divine,

A troubled stream from a pure source; And Man in portions can foresee

50 His own funereal destiny,

His wretchedness, and his resistance,
And his sad unallied existence :
To which his Spirit may oppose
Itself and equal to all woes,

55 And a firm will, and a deep sense,
Which even in torture can descry
Its own concenter'd recompense,
Triumphant where it dares defy,
And making Death a Victory.

STANZAS

WRITTEN ON THE ROAD BETWEEN FLORENCE AND

PISA.

Written in November, 1821.

Он, talk not to me of a name great in story;
The days of our youth are the days of our glory;
And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty
Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty.

5 What are garlands and crowns to the brow that is wrinkled?

"T is but as a dead flower with May-dew besprinkled. Then away with all such from the head that is hoary!

What care I for the wreaths that can only give glory?

Oh FAME! - if I e'er took delight in thy praises, 10 'T was less for the sake of thy high sounding phrases, Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover She thought that I was not unworthy to love her.

There chiefly I sought thee, there only I found thee; Her glance was the best of the rays that surround thee;

15 When it sparkled o'er aught that was bright in my

story,

I knew it was love, and I felt it was glory.

ON THIS DAY I COMPLETE MY THIRTYSIXTH YEAR.

Missolonghi, January 22, 1824.

67

These verses were written apparently at the time when Byron received his commission from the Greek goverment as commander of the expedition against Lepanto, with full powers, both civil and military.

10

"T IS time this heart should be unmoved,
Since others it hath ceased to move:
Yet, though I cannot be beloved,
Still let me love!

5 My days are in the yellow leaf;

The flowers and fruits of love are gone;
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone!

The hope, the fear, the jealous care,
The exalted portion of the pain
15 And power of love, I cannot share,
But wear the chain.

20

But 't is not thus

and 't is not here

Such thoughts should shake my soul, nor now, Where glory decks the hero's bier,

Or binds his brow.

The sword, the banner, and the field,
Glory and Greece, around me see!
The Spartan, borne upon his shield,
Was not more free.

25 Awake! (not Greece she is awake!)
Awake, my spirit! Think through whom
Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake,
And then strike home!

30

Tread those reviving passions down,
Unworthy manhood! - unto thee
Indifferent should the smile or frown
Of beauty be.

If thou regret'st thy youth, why live?
The land of honourable death
35 Is here:-up to the field, and give
Away thy breath!

40

Seek out less often sought than found

A soldier's grave, for thee the best;

Then look around, and choose thy ground,
And take thy rest.

MAZEPPA.

This poem was written at Venice and Ravenna in the autumn of 1818. Byron drew his story from an incident related by Voltaire in his History of Charles XII., which is as follows: :

The Ukraine (the country of the Cossacks) has always aspired to liberty; but being surrounded by Muscovy, the dominions of the Grand Seignior, and Poland, it has been obliged to choose a protector, and, consequently, a master, in one of these three States. The Ukrainians at first put themselves under the

protection of the Poles, who treated them with great severity. They afterwards submitted to the Russians, who governed them with despotic sway. They had originally the privilege of electing a prince under the name of general; but they were soon deprived of that right, and their general was nominated by the court of Moscow.

The person who then filled that station was a Polish gentleman, named Mazeppa, and born in the palatinate of Podolia. He had been brought up as a page to John Casimir, and had received some tincture of learning in his court. An intrigue which he had had in his youth with the lady of a Polish gentleman, having been discovered, the husband caused him to be bound stark naked upon a wild horse, and let him go in that condition. The horse, which had been brought out of Ukraine, returned to its own country, and carried Mazeppa along with it, half-dead with hunger and fatigue. Some of the country people gave him assistance; and he lived among them for a long time, and signalized himself in several excursions against the Tartars. The superiority of his knowledge gained him great respect among the Cossacks; and his reputation daily increasing, the czar found it necessary to make him prince of the Ukraine.

I.

'Twas after dread Pultowa's day,
When fortune left the royal Swede,
Around a slaughter'd army lay,

No more to combat and to bleed.
5 The power and glory of the war,
Faithless as their vain votaries, men,
Had pass'd to the triumphant Czar,
And Moscow's walls were safe again,
Until a day more dark and drear,
10 And a more memorable year,
Should give to slaughter and to shame
A mightier host and haughtier name ;
A greater wreck, a deeper fall,
A shock to one a thunderbolt to all.