Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! 75 Exists the remnant of a line 80 Such as the Doric mothers bore; Trust not for freedom to the Franks - 85 Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! 90 Place me on Sunium's marble steep, Where nothing, save the waves and I, (7-12) Scian. Cf. "The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle." The Bride of Abydos. Teian. Vide (63) "Islands of the Blest." Cape de Verde, or the Canaries. (13-42) Marathon, Salamis, and Thermopylæ. Consult a history of Greece, from 490-480 B.C. (55-60) “Pyrrhic dance"; "Pyrrhic phalanx." Consult history of Greece and history of Rome for the years 281-275 B.C. (61-66) Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. (67-72) What stanza is recalled by the mention of Miltiades? (73-78) Suli; Parga; in Epirus. (79-84) "a king." Louis XVIII. "Turkish force." This lyric should appeal to young people because of the late war between Greece and Turkey. It strongly recalls the year 1824, when, for the sake of liberty, Byron at Missolonghi said, “Give me now a little sleep," crowning a bad life with a fair death. (85-96) Sunium. The Greek sailors rounding this point could see the helmet of Pallas Athené sparkling in the sunlight miles away on the Acropolis. Thus they realised the glory of a nation which had chiseled the Parthenon. "Alone, and friendless, on the magic shore, The Curse of Minerva. Compare the closing chorus in "Hellas," where Shelley dreamed that Greece might still be free and that its restoration would be effected by means of the golden years: The world's great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn. Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam Like wrecks of a dissolving dream. A brighter Hellas rears its mountains A new Peneus rolls its fountains Against the morning-star. Where fairer Tempes bloom, there sleep A loftier Argo cleaves the main, And loves, and weeps, and dies. Oh, write no more the tale of Troy, If earth's Death's scroll must be ! Riddles of death Thebes never knew. Another Athens shall arise, And to remoter time Bequeath, like sunset to the skies, The splendour of its prime ; And leave if naught so bright may live, - Hellas. STANZAS FOR MUSIC There's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away, When the glow of early thought declines in feeling's dull decay : 'Tis not on youth's smooth cheek the blush alone, which fades so fast, But the tender bloom of heart is gone, ere youth itself be past. 5 Then the few whose spirits float above the wreck of hap piness, Are driven o'er the shoals of guilt or ocean of excess: The magnet of their course is gone, or only points in vain The shore to which their shiver'd sail shall never stretch again. Then the mortal coldness of the soul like death itself comes down ; IO It cannot feel for others' woes, it dare not dream its own; That heavy chill has frozen o'er the fountain of our tears, appears. Though wit may flash from fluent lips, and mirth distract the breast, Through midnight hours that yield no more their former hope of rest; 15 'Tis but as ivy-leaves around the ruin'd turret wreath, All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and grey beneath. Oh could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been, Or weep as I could once have wept o'er many a vanish'd scene; As springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though they be, 20 So, midst the wither'd waste of life, those tears would flow to me. What did Byron write to Moore in regard to the composition of this poem? Cf. (12) to this couplet from "The Corsair": "Full many a stoic eye and aspect stern Mask hearts where grief hath little left to learn. Are you sure that Byron is not parading or posing in this strain of an unwept tear? SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY Of cloudless climes and starry skies; 5 Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. IO One shade the more, one ray the less, Or softly lightens o'er her face; How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, 15 The smiles that win, the tints that glow, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent! What circumstances caused this poem to be written? STANZAS TO AUGUSTA Though the day of my destiny's over, The faults which so many could find; 5 Though thy soul with my grief was acquainted It shrunk not to share it with me, ΙΟ And the love which my spirit hath painted Then when nature around me is smiling, I do not believe it beguiling, Because it reminds me of thine ; And when winds are at war with the ocean, As the breasts I believed in with me, 15 If their billows excite an emotion, It is that they bear me from thee. |