{ "id": "lord-byron/canto-iii", "title": "Canto III", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Lord Byron", "poet_slug": "lord-byron", "language": "en", "book": "Don Juan", "book_slug": "don-juan", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 5, "container": null, "epigraph": null, "first_published": { "year": 1824, "venue": "Don Juan (1824)", "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.", "uncertain": false, "sources": [ "https://github.com/standardebooks/lord-byron_don-juan", "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18762" ] }, "source": { "kind": "standard-ebooks", "repo": "standardebooks/lord-byron_don-juan", "file": "canto-3.xhtml", "upstream": [ "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18762", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000667686" ], "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)" }, "verification": { "level": "structural-only", "last_checked": "2026-08-20" }, "stats": { "n_lines": 984, "n_stanzas": 127, 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{ "ordinal": "CV", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 120, 121 ] }, { "ordinal": "CVI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 121, 122 ] }, { "ordinal": "CVII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 122, 123 ] }, { "ordinal": "CVIII", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 123, 124 ] }, { "ordinal": "CIX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 124, 125 ] }, { "ordinal": "CX", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 125, 126 ] }, { "ordinal": "CXI", "title": null, "stanza_range": [ 126, 127 ] } ], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "Hail, Muse! et cetera.⁠—We left Juan sleeping,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pillowed upon a fair and happy breast,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And watched by eyes that never yet knew weeping,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And loved by a young heart, too deeply blest", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To feel the poison through her spirit creeping,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or know who rested there, a foe to rest,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Had soiled the current of her sinless years,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And turned her pure heart’s purest blood to tears!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Oh, Love! what is it in this world of ours", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which makes it fatal to be loved? Ah why", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With cypress branches hast thou wreathed thy bowers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And made thy best interpreter a sigh?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As those who dote on odours pluck the flowers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And place them on their breast⁠—but place to die⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thus the frail beings we would fondly cherish", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are laid within our bosoms but to perish.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In her first passion Woman loves her lover,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In all the others all she loves is Love,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which grows a habit she can ne’er get over,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fits her loosely⁠—like an easy glove,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As you may find, whene’er you like to prove her:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One man alone at first her heart can move;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She then prefers him in the plural number,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not finding that the additions much encumber.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I know not if the fault be men’s or theirs;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But one thing’s pretty sure; a woman planted", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(Unless at once she plunge for life in prayers)⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "After a decent time must be gallanted;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Although, no doubt, her first of love affairs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is that to which her heart is wholly granted;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet there are some, they say, who have had none,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But those who have ne’er end with only one.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Tis melancholy, and a fearful sign", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of human frailty, folly, also crime,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That Love and Marriage rarely can combine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Although they both are born in the same clime;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Marriage from Love, like vinegar from wine⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A sad, sour, sober beverage⁠—by Time", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Is sharpened from its high celestial flavour", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Down to a very homely household savour.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There’s something of antipathy, as ’twere,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between their present and their future state;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A kind of flattery that’s hardly fair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is used until the truth arrives too late⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet what can people do, except despair?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The same things change their names at such a rate;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For instance⁠—Passion in a lover’s glorious,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But in a husband is pronounced uxorious.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Men grow ashamed of being so very fond;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They sometimes also get a little tired", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(But that, of course, is rare), and then despond:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The same things cannot always be admired,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet ’tis “so nominated in the bond,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That both are tied till one shall have expired.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sad thought! to lose the spouse that was adorning", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our days, and put one’s servants into mourning.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There’s doubtless something in domestic doings", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which forms, in fact, true Love’s antithesis;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Romances paint at full length people’s wooings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But only give a bust of marriages;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For no one cares for matrimonial cooings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There’s nothing wrong in a connubial kiss:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Think you, if Laura had been Petrarch’s wife,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He would have written sonnets all his life?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "All tragedies are finished by a death,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All comedies are ended by a marriage;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The future states of both are left to faith,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For authors fear description might disparage", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The worlds to come of both, or fall beneath,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then both worlds would punish their miscarriage;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So leaving each their priest and prayer-book ready,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They say no more of Death or of the Lady.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The only two that in my recollection,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have sung of Heaven and Hell, or marriage, are", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Dante and Milton, and of both the affection", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was hapless in their nuptials, for some bar", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of fault or temper ruined the connection", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Such things, in fact, it don’t ask much to mar);", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Dante’s Beatrice and Milton’s Eve", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were not drawn from their spouses, you conceive.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some persons say that Dante meant Theology", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By Beatrice, and not a mistress⁠—I,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Although my opinion may require apology,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deem this a commentator’s fantasy,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Unless indeed it was from his own knowledge he", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Decided thus, and showed good reason why;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I think that Dante’s more abstruse ecstatics", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Meant to personify the Mathematics.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Haidée and Juan were not married, but", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fault was theirs, not mine: it is not fair,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Chaste reader, then, in any way to put", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The blame on me, unless you wish they were;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Then if you’d have them wedded, please to shut", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The book which treats of this erroneous pair,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Before the consequences grow too awful;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis dangerous to read of loves unlawful.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Yet they were happy⁠—happy in the illicit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Indulgence of their innocent desires;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But more imprudent grown with every visit,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Haidée forgot the island was her Sire’s;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When we have what we like ’tis hard to miss it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At least in the beginning, ere one tires;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thus she came often, not a moment losing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whilst her piratical papa was cruising.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Let not his mode of raising cash seem strange,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Although he fleeced the flags of every nation,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For into a Prime Minister but change", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His title, and ’tis nothing but taxation;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But he, more modest, took an humbler range", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Life, and in an honester vocation", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Pursued o’er the high seas his watery journey,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And merely practised as a sea-attorney.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The good old gentleman had been detained", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By winds and waves, and some important captures;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And, in the hope of more, at sea remained,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Although a squall or two had damped his raptures,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By swamping one of the prizes; he had chained", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His prisoners, dividing them like chapters", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In numbered lots; they all had cuffs and collars,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And averaged each from ten to a hundred dollars.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some he disposed of off Cape Matapan,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among his friends the Mainots; some he sold", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To his Tunis correspondents, save one man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tossed overboard unsaleable (being old);", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The rest⁠—save here and there some richer one,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reserved for future ransom⁠—in the hold,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Were linked alike, as, for the common people, he", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had a large order from the Dey of Tripoli.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The merchandise was served in the same way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pieced out for different marts in the Levant,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Except some certain portions of the prey,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Light classic articles of female want,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "French stuffs, lace, tweezers, toothpicks, teapot, tray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Guitars and castanets from Alicant,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "All which selected from the spoil he gathers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Robbed for his daughter by the best of fathers.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A monkey, a Dutch mastiff, a mackaw,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two parrots, with a Persian cat and kittens,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He chose from several animals he saw⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A terrier, too, which once had been a Briton’s,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who dying on the coast of Ithaca,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The peasants gave the poor dumb thing a pittance:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "These to secure in this strong blowing weather,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He caged in one huge hamper altogether.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then, having settled his marine affairs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Despatching single cruisers here and there,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His vessel having need of some repairs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He shaped his course to where his daughter fair", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Continued still her hospitable cares;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But that part of the coast being shoal and bare,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And rough with reefs which ran out many a mile,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His port lay on the other side o’ the isle.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And there he went ashore without delay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Having no custom-house nor quarantine", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To ask him awkward questions on the way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the time and place where he had been:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He left his ship to be hove down next day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With orders to the people to careen;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So that all hands were busy beyond measure,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In getting out goods, ballast, guns, and treasure.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Arriving at the summit of a hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which overlooked the white walls of his home,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He stopped.⁠—What singular emotions fill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their bosoms who have been induced to roam!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With fluttering doubts if all be well or ill⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With love for many, and with fears for some;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "All feelings which o’erleap the years long lost,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bring our hearts back to their starting-post.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The approach of home to husbands and to sires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "After long travelling by land or water,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Most naturally some small doubt inspires⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A female family’s a serious matter,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(None trusts the sex more, or so much admires⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But they hate flattery, so I never flatter);", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Wives in their husbands’ absences grow subtler,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "An honest gentleman at his return", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May not have the good fortune of Ulysses;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Not all lone matrons for their husbands mourn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or show the same dislike to suitors’ kisses;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The odds are that he finds a handsome urn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To his memory⁠—and two or three young misses", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Born to some friend, who holds his wife and riches⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And that his Argus⁠—bites him by the breeches.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "If single, probably his plighted Fair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has in his absence wedded some rich miser;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But all the better, for the happy pair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May quarrel, and, the lady growing wiser,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He may resume his amatory care", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As cavalier servente, or despise her;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And that his sorrow may not be a dumb one,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Writes odes on the Inconstancy of Woman.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And oh! ye gentlemen who have already", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some chaste liaison of the kind⁠—I mean", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "An honest friendship with a married lady⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The only thing of this sort ever seen", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To last⁠—of all connections the most steady,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the true Hymen, (the first’s but a screen)⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet, for all that, keep not too long away⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I’ve known the absent wronged four times a day.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Lambro, our sea-solicitor, who had", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Much less experience of dry land than Ocean,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "On seeing his own chimney-smoke, felt glad;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But not knowing metaphysics, had no notion", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of the true reason of his not being sad,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or that of any other strong emotion;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He loved his child, and would have wept the loss of her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But knew the cause no more than a philosopher.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He saw his white walls shining in the sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His garden trees all shadowy and green;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He heard his rivulet’s light bubbling run,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The distant dog-bark; and perceived between", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The umbrage of the wood, so cool and dun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The moving figures, and the sparkling sheen", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of arms (in the East all arm)⁠—and various dyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of coloured garbs, as bright as butterflies.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And as the spot where they appear he nears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Surprised at these unwonted signs of idling,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He hears⁠—alas! no music of the spheres,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But an unhallowed, earthly sound of fiddling!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A melody which made him doubt his ears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cause being past his guessing or unriddling;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A pipe, too, and a drum, and shortly after⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A most unoriental roar of laughter.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And still more nearly to the place advancing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Descending rather quickly the declivity,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Through the waved branches o’er the greensward glancing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Midst other indications of festivity,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Seeing a troop of his domestics dancing", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like Dervises, who turn as on a pivot, he", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perceived it was the Pyrrhic dance so martial,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To which the Levantines are very partial.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And further on a troop of Grecian girls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The first and tallest her white kerchief waving,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Were strung together like a row of pearls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Linked hand in hand, and dancing; each too having", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Down her white neck long floating auburn curls⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(The least of which would set ten poets raving);", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their leader sang⁠—and bounded to her song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With choral step and voice the virgin throng.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And here, assembled cross-legged round their trays,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Small social parties just begun to dine;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Pilaus and meats of all sorts met the gaze,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And flasks of Samian and of Chian wine,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And sherbet cooling in the porous vase;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above them their dessert grew on its vine;⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The orange and pomegranate nodding o’er,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dropped in their laps, scarce plucked, their mellow store.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A band of children, round a snow-white ram,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There wreathe his venerable horns with flowers;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While peaceful as if still an unweaned lamb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The patriarch of the flock all gently cowers", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His sober head, majestically tame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or eats from out the palm, or playful lowers", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His brow, as if in act to butt, and then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yielding to their small hands, draws back again.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Their classical profiles, and glittering dresses,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their large black eyes, and soft seraphic cheeks,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Crimson as cleft pomegranates, their long tresses,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The gesture which enchants, the eye that speaks,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The innocence which happy childhood blesses,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made quite a picture of these little Greeks;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So that the philosophical beholder", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sighed for their sakes⁠—that they should e’er grow older.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Afar, a dwarf buffoon stood telling tales", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To a sedate grey circle of old smokers,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of secret treasures found in hidden vales,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of wonderful replies from Arab jokers,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of charms to make good gold and cure bad ails,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of rocks bewitched that open to the knockers,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of magic ladies who, by one sole act,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Transformed their lords to beasts (but that’s a fact).", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here was no lack of innocent diversion", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For the imagination or the senses,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Song, dance, wine, music, stories from the Persian,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All pretty pastimes in which no offence is;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Lambro saw all these things with aversion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perceiving in his absence such expenses,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Dreading that climax of all human ills,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The inflammation of his weekly bills.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Ah! what is man? what perils still environ", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The happiest mortals even after dinner!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A day of gold from out an age of iron", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is all that Life allows the luckiest sinner;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Pleasure (whene’er she sings, at least) ’s a Siren,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That lures, to flay alive, the young beginner;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Lambro’s reception at his people’s banquet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was such as fire accords to a wet blanket.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He⁠—being a man who seldom used a word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too much, and wishing gladly to surprise", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(In general he surprised men with the sword)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His daughter⁠—had not sent before to advise", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of his arrival, so that no one stirred;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And long he paused to re-assure his eyes,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In fact much more astonished than delighted,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To find so much good company invited.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He did not know (alas! how men will lie)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That a report (especially the Greeks)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Avouched his death (such people never die),", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And put his house in mourning several weeks⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But now their eyes and also lips were dry;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bloom, too, had returned to Haidée’s cheeks:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her tears, too, being returned into their fount,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She now kept house upon her own account.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Hence all this rice, meat, dancing, wine, and fiddling,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which turned the isle into a place of pleasure;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The servants all were getting drunk or idling,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A life which made them happy beyond measure.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her father’s hospitality seemed middling,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Compared with what Haidée did with his treasure;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Twas wonderful how things went on improving,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While she had not one hour to spare from loving.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Perhaps you think, in stumbling on this feast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He flew into a passion, and in fact", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There was no mighty reason to be pleased;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps you prophesy some sudden act,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The whip, the rack, or dungeon at the least,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To teach his people to be more exact,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And that, proceeding at a very high rate,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He showed the royal penchants of a pirate.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "You’re wrong.⁠—He was the mildest mannered man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With such true breeding of a gentleman,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You never could divine his real thought;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "No courtier could, and scarcely woman can", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gird more deceit within a petticoat;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Pity he loved adventurous life’s variety,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He was so great a loss to good society.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Advancing to the nearest dinner tray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tapping the shoulder of the nighest guest,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With a peculiar smile, which, by the way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Boded no good, whatever it expressed,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He asked the meaning of this holiday;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The vinous Greek to whom he had addressed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His question, much too merry to divine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The questioner, filled up a glass of wine,", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And without turning his facetious head,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Over his shoulder, with a Bacchant air,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Presented the o’erflowing cup, and said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Talking’s dry work, I have no time to spare.”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A second hiccuped, “Our old Master’s dead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You’d better ask our Mistress who’s his heir.”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“Our Mistress!” quoth a third: “Our Mistress!⁠—pooh!⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You mean our Master⁠—not the old, but new.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "These rascals, being new comers, knew not whom", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They thus addressed⁠—and Lambro’s visage fell⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And o’er his eye a momentary gloom", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Passed, but he strove quite courteously to quell", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The expression, and endeavouring to resume", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His smile, requested one of them to tell", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The name and quality of his new patron,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who seemed to have turned Haidée into a matron.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“I know not,” quoth the fellow, “who or what", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He is, nor whence he came⁠—and little care;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But this I know, that this roast capon’s fat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And that good wine ne’er washed down better fare;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And if you are not satisfied with that,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Direct your questions to my neighbour there;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He’ll answer all for better or for worse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For none likes more to hear himself converse.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I said that Lambro was a man of patience,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And certainly he showed the best of breeding,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which scarce even France, the Paragon of nations,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "E’er saw her most polite of sons exceeding;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He bore these sneers against his near relations,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His own anxiety, his heart, too, bleeding,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The insults, too, of every servile glutton,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who all the time was eating up his mutton.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now in a person used to much command⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To bid men come, and go, and come again⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To see his orders done, too, out of hand⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whether the word was death, or but the chain⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It may seem strange to find his manners bland;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet such things are, which I cannot explain,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though, doubtless, he who can command himself", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is good to govern⁠—almost as a Guelf.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Not that he was not sometimes rash or so,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But never in his real and serious mood;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Then calm, concentrated, and still, and slow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He lay coiled like the Boa in the wood;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With him it never was a word and blow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His angry word once o’er, he shed no blood,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But in his silence there was much to rue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And his one blow left little work for two.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He asked no further questions, and proceeded", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On to the house, but by a private way,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So that the few who met him hardly heeded,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So little they expected him that day;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If love paternal in his bosom pleaded", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Haidée’s sake, is more than I can say,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But certainly to one deemed dead returning,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This revel seemed a curious mode of mourning.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "If all the dead could now return to life,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Which God forbid!) or some, or a great many,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For instance, if a husband or his wife", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Nuptial examples are as good as any),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "No doubt whate’er might be their former strife,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The present weather would be much more rainy⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Tears shed into the grave of the connection", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would share most probably its resurrection.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He entered in the house no more his home,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thing to human feelings the most trying,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And harder for the heart to overcome,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps, than even the mental pangs of dying;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To find our hearthstone turned into a tomb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And round its once warm precincts palely lying", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The ashes of our hopes, is a deep grief,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beyond a single gentleman’s belief.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He entered in the house⁠—his home no more,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For without hearts there is no home;⁠—and felt", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The solitude of passing his own door", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without a welcome: there he long had dwelt,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There his few peaceful days Time had swept o’er,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There his worn bosom and keen eye would melt", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Over the innocence of that sweet child,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His only shrine of feelings undefiled.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He was a man of a strange temperament,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of mild demeanour though of savage mood,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Moderate in all his habits, and content", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With temperance in pleasure, as in food,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Quick to perceive, and strong to bear, and meant", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For something better, if not wholly good;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His Country’s wrongs and his despair to save her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had stung him from a slave to an enslaver.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The love of power, and rapid gain of gold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hardness by long habitude produced,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The dangerous life in which he had grown old,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mercy he had granted oft abused,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The sights he was accustomed to behold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wild seas, and wild men with whom he cruised,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Had cost his enemies a long repentance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And made him a good friend, but bad acquaintance.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But something of the spirit of old Greece", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flashed o’er his soul a few heroic rays,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Such as lit onward to the Golden Fleece", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His predecessors in the Colchian days;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis true he had no ardent love for peace⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Alas! his country showed no path to praise:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Hate to the world and war with every nation", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He waged, in vengeance of her degradation.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Still o’er his mind the influence of the clime", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shed its Ionian elegance, which showed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Its power unconsciously full many a time⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A taste seen in the choice of his abode,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A love of music and of scenes sublime,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A pleasure in the gentle stream that flowed", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Past him in crystal, and a joy in flowers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bedewed his spirit in his calmer hours.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But whatsoe’er he had of love reposed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On that belovèd daughter; she had been", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The only thing which kept his heart unclosed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amidst the savage deeds he had done and seen,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A lonely pure affection unopposed:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There wanted but the loss of this to wean", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His feelings from all milk of human kindness,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And turn him like the Cyclops mad with blindness.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The cubless tigress in her jungle raging", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is dreadful to the shepherd and the flock;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Ocean when its yeasty war is waging", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is awful to the vessel near the rock;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But violent things will sooner bear assuaging,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their fury being spent by its own shock,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Than the stern, single, deep, and wordless ire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of a strong human heart, and in a Sire.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It is a hard although a common case", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To find our children running restive⁠—they", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In whom our brightest days we would retrace,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our little selves re-formed in finer clay,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Just as old age is creeping on apace,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And clouds come o’er the sunset of our day,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They kindly leave us, though not quite alone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But in good company⁠—the gout or stone.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Yet a fine family is a fine thing", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Provided they don’t come in after dinner);", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis beautiful to see a matron bring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her children up (if nursing them don’t thin her);", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like cherubs round an altar-piece they cling", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To the fire-side (a sight to touch a sinner).", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A lady with her daughters or her nieces", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shine like a guinea and seven-shilling pieces.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Old Lambro passed unseen a private gate,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And stood within his hall at eventide;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Meantime the lady and her lover sate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At wassail in their beauty and their pride:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "An ivory inlaid table spread with state", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before them, and fair slaves on every side;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Gems, gold, and silver, formed the service mostly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mother of pearl and coral the less costly.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The dinner made about a hundred dishes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lamb and pistachio nuts⁠—in short, all meats,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And saffron soups, and sweetbreads; and the fishes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were of the finest that e’er flounced in nets,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Dressed to a Sybarite’s most pampered wishes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The beverage was various sherbets", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of raisin, orange, and pomegranate juice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Squeezed through the rind, which makes it best for use.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "These were ranged round, each in its crystal ewer,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fruits, and date-bread loaves closed the repast,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Mocha’s berry, from Arabia pure,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In small fine China cups, came in at last;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Gold cups of filigree, made to secure", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hand from burning, underneath them placed;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Cloves, cinnamon, and saffron too were boiled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Up with the coffee, which (I think) they spoiled.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The hangings of the room were tapestry, made", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of velvet panels, each of different hue,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And thick with damask flowers of silk inlaid;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And round them ran a yellow border too;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The upper border, richly wrought, displayed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Embroidered delicately o’er with blue,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Soft Persian sentences, in lilac letters,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From poets, or the moralists their betters.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "These Oriental writings on the wall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Quite common in those countries, are a kind", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of monitors adapted to recall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like skulls at Memphian banquets, to the mind,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The words which shook Belshazzar in his hall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And took his kingdom from him: You will find,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though sages may pour out their wisdom’s treasure,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There is no sterner moralist than Pleasure.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A Beauty at the season’s close grown hectic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A Genius who has drunk himself to death,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A Rake turned methodistic, or Eclectic⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(For that’s the name they like to pray beneath)⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But most, an Alderman struck apoplectic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are things that really take away the breath⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And show that late hours, wine, and love are able", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To do not much less damage than the table.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Haidée and Juan carpeted their feet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On crimson satin, bordered with pale blue;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their sofa occupied three parts complete", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of the apartment⁠—and appeared quite new;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The velvet cushions (for a throne more meet)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were scarlet, from whose glowing centre grew", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A sun embossed in gold, whose rays of tissue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Meridian-like, were seen all light to issue.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Crystal and marble, plate and porcelain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had done their work of splendour; Indian mats", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Persian carpets, which the heart bled to stain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Over the floors were spread; gazelles and cats,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And dwarfs and blacks, and such like things, that gain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their bread as ministers and favourites (that’s", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To say, by degradation) mingled there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As plentiful as in a court, or fair.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was no want of lofty mirrors, and", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tables, most of ebony inlaid", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With mother of pearl or ivory, stood at hand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or were of tortoise-shell or rare woods made,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Fretted with gold or silver:⁠—by command", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The greater part of these were ready spread", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With viands and sherbets in ice⁠—and wine⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Kept for all comers at all hours to dine.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Of all the dresses I select Haidée’s:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She wore two jelicks⁠—one was of pale yellow;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of azure, pink, and white was her chemise⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Neath which her breast heaved like a little billow:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With buttons formed of pearls as large as peas,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All gold and crimson shone her jelick’s fellow,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And the striped white gauze baracan that bound her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like fleecy clouds about the moon, flowed round her.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "One large gold bracelet clasped each lovely arm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lockless⁠—so pliable from the pure gold", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That the hand stretched and shut it without harm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The limb which it adorned its only mould;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So beautiful⁠—its very shape would charm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And clinging, as if loath to lose its hold,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The purest ore enclosed the whitest skin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That e’er by precious metal was held in.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Around, as Princess of her father’s land,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A like gold bar above her instep rolled", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Announced her rank; twelve rings were on her hand;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her hair was starred with gems; her veil’s fine fold", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Below her breast was fastened with a band", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of lavish pearls, whose worth could scarce be told;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her orange silk full Turkish trousers furled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the prettiest ankle in the world.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Her hair’s long auburn waves down to her heel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flowed like an Alpine torrent which the sun", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Dyes with his morning light⁠—and would conceal", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her person if allowed at large to run,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And still they seemed resentfully to feel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The silken fillet’s curb, and sought to shun", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their bonds whene’er some Zephyr caught began", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To offer his young pinion as her fan.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Round her she made an atmosphere of life,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The very air seemed lighter from her eyes,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They were so soft and beautiful, and rife", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With all we can imagine of the skies,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And pure as Psyche ere she grew a wife⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too pure even for the purest human ties;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her overpowering presence made you feel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It would not be idolatry to kneel.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Her eyelashes, though dark as night, were tinged", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(It is the country’s custom, but in vain),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For those large black eyes were so blackly fringed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The glossy rebels mocked the jetty stain,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And in their native beauty stood avenged:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her nails were touched with henna; but, again,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The power of Art was turned to nothing, for", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They could not look more rosy than before.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The henna should be deeply dyed to make", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The skin relieved appear more fairly fair;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She had no need of this, day ne’er will break", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On mountain tops more heavenly white than her:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The eye might doubt if it were well awake,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She was so like a vision; I might err,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Shakespeare also says, ’tis very silly", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“To gild refinèd gold, or paint the lily.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan had on a shawl of black and gold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But a white baracan, and so transparent", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The sparkling gems beneath you might behold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like small stars through the milky way apparent;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His turban, furled in many a graceful fold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An emerald aigrette, with Haidée’s hair in ’t,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Surmounted as its clasp⁠—a glowing crescent,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose rays shone ever trembling, but incessant.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And now they were diverted by their suite,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dwarfs, dancing girls, black eunuchs, and a poet,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which made their new establishment complete;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The last was of great fame, and liked to show it;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His verses rarely wanted their due feet⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And for his theme⁠—he seldom sung below it,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He being paid to satirise or flatter,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As the Psalm says, “inditing a good matter.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He praised the present, and abused the past,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reversing the good custom of old days,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "An Eastern anti-jacobin at last", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He turned, preferring pudding to no praise⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For some few years his lot had been o’ercast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By his seeming independent in his lays,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But now he sung the Sultan and the Pacha⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With truth like Southey, and with verse like Crashaw.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He was a man who had seen many changes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And always changed as true as any needle;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His Polar Star being one which rather ranges,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And not the fixed⁠—he knew the way to wheedle:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So vile he ’scaped the doom which oft avenges;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And being fluent (save indeed when fee’d ill),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He lied with such a fervour of intention⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There was no doubt he earned his laureate pension.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But he had genius⁠—when a turncoat has it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Vates irritabilis takes care", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That without notice few full moons shall pass it;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even good men like to make the public stare:⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But to my subject⁠—let me see⁠—what was it?⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Oh!⁠—the third canto⁠—and the pretty pair⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their loves, and feasts, and house, and dress, and mode", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of living in their insular abode.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Their poet, a sad trimmer, but, no less,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In company a very pleasant fellow,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Had been the favourite of full many a mess", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of men, and made them speeches when half mellow;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And though his meaning they could rarely guess,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet still they deigned to hiccup or to bellow", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The glorious meed of popular applause,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of which the first ne’er knows the second cause.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But now being lifted into high society,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And having picked up several odds and ends", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of free thoughts in his travels for variety,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He deemed, being in a lone isle, among friends,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That, without any danger of a riot, he", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might for long lying make himself amends;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And, singing as he sung in his warm youth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Agree to a short armistice with Truth.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He had travelled ’mongst the Arabs, Turks, and Franks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And knew the self-loves of the different nations;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And having lived with people of all ranks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had something ready upon most occasions⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which got him a few presents and some thanks.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He varied with some skill his adulations;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To “do at Rome as Romans do,” a piece", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of conduct was which he observed in Greece.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Thus, usually, when he was asked to sing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He gave the different nations something national;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Twas all the same to him⁠—“God save the King,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or “Ça ira,” according to the fashion all:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His Muse made increment of anything,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From the high lyric down to the low rational;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If Pindar sang horse-races, what should hinder", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Himself from being as pliable as Pindar?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In France, for instance, he would write a chanson;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In England a six canto quarto tale;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In Spain he’d make a ballad or romance on", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The last war⁠—much the same in Portugal;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In Germany, the Pegasus he’d prance on", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would be old Goethe’s⁠—(see what says De Staël);", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In Italy he’d ape the “Trecentisti;”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In Greece, he’d sing some sort of hymn like this t’ ye:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where burning Sappho loved and sung,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Where grew the arts of War and Peace,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Eternal summer gilds them yet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But all, except their Sun, is set.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Scian and the Teian muse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Hero’s harp, the Lover’s lute,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Have found the fame your shores refuse:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their place of birth alone is mute", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To sounds which echo further west", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than your Sires’ “Islands of the Blest.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The mountains look on Marathon⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Marathon looks on the sea;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And musing there an hour alone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I dreamed that Greece might still be free;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For standing on the Persians’ grave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I could not deem myself a slave.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A King sate on the rocky brow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which looks o’er sea-born Salamis;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And ships, by thousands, lay below,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And men in nations;⁠—all were his!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He counted them at break of day⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, when the Sun set, where were they?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And where are they? and where art thou,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My Country? On thy voiceless shore", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The heroic lay is tuneless now⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The heroic bosom beats no more!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And must thy Lyre, so long divine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Degenerate into hands like mine?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Tis something, in the dearth of Fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though linked among a fettered race,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To feel at least a patriot’s shame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even as I sing, suffuse my face;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For what is left the poet here?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Greeks a blush⁠—for Greece a tear.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Must we but weep o’er days more blest?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must we but blush?⁠—Our fathers bled.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Earth! render back from out thy breast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A remnant of our Spartan dead!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of the three hundred grant but three,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make a new Thermopylae!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "What, silent still? and silent all?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ah! no;⁠—the voices of the dead", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sound like a distant torrent’s fall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And answer, “Let one living head,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But one arise⁠—we come, we come!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis but the living who are dumb.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In vain⁠—in vain: strike other chords;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fill high the cup with Samian wine!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Leave battles to the Turkish hordes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shed the blood of Scio’s vine!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Hark! rising to the ignoble call⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How answers each bold Bacchanal!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of two such lessons, why forget", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The nobler and the manlier one?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "You have the letters Cadmus gave⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Think ye he meant them for a slave?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We will not think of themes like these!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It made Anacreon’s song divine:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He served⁠—but served Polycrates⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A Tyrant; but our masters then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were still, at least, our countrymen.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Tyrant of the Chersonese", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was Freedom’s best and bravest friend;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That tyrant was Miltiades!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Oh! that the present hour would lend", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Another despot of the kind!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such chains as his were sure to bind.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On Suli’s rock, and Parga’s shore,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Exists the remnant of a line", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such as the Doric mothers bore;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And there, perhaps, some seed is sown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Heracleidan blood might own.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Trust not for freedom to the Franks⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They have a king who buys and sells;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In native swords, and native ranks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The only hope of courage dwells;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Turkish force, and Latin fraud,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would break your shield, however broad.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our virgins dance beneath the shade⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I see their glorious black eyes shine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But gazing on each glowing maid,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My own the burning tear-drop laves,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To think such breasts must suckle slaves.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Place me on Sunium’s marbled steep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where nothing, save the waves and I,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "May hear our mutual murmurs sweep;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There, swan-like, let me sing and die:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A land of slaves shall ne’er be mine⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dash down yon cup of Samian wine!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Thus sung, or would, or could, or should have sung,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The modern Greek, in tolerable verse;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If not like Orpheus quite, when Greece was young,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet in these times he might have done much worse:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His strain displayed some feeling⁠—right or wrong;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And feeling, in a poet, is the source", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of others’ feeling; but they are such liars,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And take all colours⁠—like the hands of dyers.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But words are things, and a small drop of ink,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis strange, the shortest letter which man uses", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Instead of speech, may form a lasting link", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of ages; to what straits old Time reduces", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Frail man, when paper⁠—even a rag like this,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Survives himself, his tomb, and all that’s his!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And when his bones are dust, his grave a blank,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His station, generation, even his nation,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Become a thing, or nothing, save to rank", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In chronological commemoration,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some dull MS. Oblivion long has sank,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or graven stone found in a barrack’s station", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In digging the foundation of a closet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May turn his name up, as a rare deposit.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And Glory long has made the sages smile;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis something, nothing, words, illusion, wind⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Depending more upon the historian’s style", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than on the name a person leaves behind:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Troy owes to Homer what whist owes to Hoyle:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The present century was growing blind", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To the great Marlborough’s skill in giving knocks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until his late Life by Archdeacon Coxe.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Milton’s the Prince of poets⁠—so we say;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little heavy, but no less divine:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "An independent being in his day⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Learned, pious, temperate in love and wine;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But, his life falling into Johnson’s way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We’re told this great High Priest of all the Nine", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Was whipped at college⁠—a harsh sire⁠—odd spouse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For the first Mrs. Milton left his house.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "All these are, certes, entertaining facts,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like Shakespeare’s stealing deer, Lord Bacon’s bribes;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like Titus’ youth, and Caesar’s earliest acts;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like Burns (whom Doctor Currie well describes);", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like Cromwell’s pranks;⁠—but although Truth exacts", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These amiable descriptions from the scribes,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As most essential to their Hero’s story,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They do not much contribute to his glory.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "All are not moralists, like Southey, when", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He prated to the world of “Pantisocracy;”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or Wordsworth unexcised, unhired, who then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seasoned his pedlar poems with Democracy;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or Coleridge long before his flighty pen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let to the Morning Post its aristocracy;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When he and Southey, following the same path,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Espoused two partners (milliners of Bath).", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Such names at present cut a convict figure,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The very Botany Bay in moral geography;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their loyal treason, renegado rigour,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are good manure for their more bare biography;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Wordsworth’s last quarto, by the way, is bigger", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than any since the birthday of typography;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A drowsy, frowzy poem, called the “Excursion,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Writ in a manner which is my aversion.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He there builds up a formidable dyke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between his own and others’ intellect;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But Wordsworth’s poem, and his followers, like", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Joanna Southcote’s Shiloh and her sect,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Are things which in this century don’t strike", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The public mind⁠—so few are the elect;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And the new births of both their stale Virginities", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have proved but Dropsies, taken for Divinities.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But let me to my story: I must own,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If I have any fault, it is digression,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Leaving my people to proceed alone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While I soliloquize beyond expression:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But these are my addresses from the throne,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which put off business to the ensuing session:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Forgetting each omission is a loss to", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The world, not quite so great as Ariosto.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I know that what our neighbours call “longueurs,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(We’ve not so good a word, but have the thing,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In that complete perfection which insures", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An epic from Bob Southey every spring⁠—)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Form not the true temptation which allures", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The reader; but ’t would not be hard to bring", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some fine examples of the Epopée,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To prove its grand ingredient is Ennui.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "We learn from Horace, “Homer sometimes sleeps;”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We feel without him⁠—Wordsworth sometimes wakes⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To show with what complacency he creeps,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With his dear “Waggoners,” around his lakes.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He wishes for “a boat” to sail the deeps⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Ocean?⁠—No, of air; and then he makes", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Another outcry for “a little boat,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And drivels seas to set it well afloat.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "If he must fain sweep o’er the ethereal plain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Pegasus runs restive in his “Waggon,”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Could he not beg the loan of Charles’s Wain?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or pray Medea for a single dragon?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or if, too classic for his vulgar brain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He feared his neck to venture such a nag on,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And he must needs mount nearer to the moon,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could not the blockhead ask for a balloon?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Pedlars,” and “Boats,” and “Waggons!” Oh! ye shades", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Pope and Dryden, are we come to this?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That trash of such sort not alone evades", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Contempt, but from the bathos’ vast abyss", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Floats scumlike uppermost, and these Jack Cades", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of sense and song above your graves may hiss⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The “little boatman” and his Peter Bell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Can sneer at him who drew “Achitophel!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "T’ our tale.⁠—The feast was over, the slaves gone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dwarfs and dancing girls had all retired;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Arab lore and Poet’s song were done,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And every sound of revelry expired;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The lady and her lover, left alone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rosy flood of Twilight’s sky admired;⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ave Maria! o’er the earth and sea,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That heavenliest hour of Heaven is worthiest thee!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Ave Maria! blessèd be the hour!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The time, the clime, the spot, where I so oft", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Have felt that moment in its fullest power", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sink o’er the earth⁠—so beautiful and soft⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While swung the deep bell in the distant tower,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or the faint dying day-hymn stole aloft,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And not a breath crept through the rosy air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet the forest leaves seemed stirred with prayer.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Ave Maria! ’tis the hour of prayer!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ave Maria! ’tis the hour of Love!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ave Maria! may our spirits dare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look up to thine and to thy Son’s above!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ave Maria! oh that face so fair!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those downcast eyes beneath the Almighty Dove⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "What though ’tis but a pictured image?⁠—strike⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That painting is no idol⁠—’tis too like.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some kinder casuists are pleased to say,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In nameless print⁠—that I have no devotion;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But set those persons down with me to pray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And you shall see who has the properest notion", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of getting into Heaven the shortest way;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My altars are the mountains and the Ocean,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Earth⁠—air⁠—stars,⁠—all that springs from the great Whole,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who hath produced, and will receive the Soul.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Sweet Hour of Twilight!⁠—in the solitude", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of the pine forest, and the silent shore", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which bounds Ravenna’s immemorial wood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rooted where once the Adrian wave flowed o’er,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To where the last Caesarean fortress stood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Evergreen forest! which Boccaccio’s lore", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Dryden’s lay made haunted ground to me,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How have I loved the twilight hour and thee!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The shrill cicalas, people of the pine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Making their summer lives one ceaseless song,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Were the sole echoes, save my steed’s and mine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Vesper bell’s that rose the boughs along;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The spectre huntsman of Onesti’s line,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His hell-dogs, and their chase, and the fair throng", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which learned from this example not to fly", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From a true lover⁠—shadowed my mind’s eye.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Oh, Hesperus! thou bringest all good things⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To the young bird the parent’s brooding wings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The welcome stall to the o’erlaboured steer;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whate’er of peace about our hearthstone clings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whate’er our household gods protect of dear,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Are gathered round us by thy look of rest;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thou bring’st the child, too, to the mother’s breast.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Soft Hour! which wakes the wish and melts the heart", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of those who sail the seas, on the first day", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When they from their sweet friends are torn apart;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or fills with love the pilgrim on his way", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As the far bell of Vesper makes him start,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seeming to weep the dying day’s decay;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Is this a fancy which our reason scorns?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ah! surely Nothing dies but Something mourns!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "When Nero perished by the justest doom", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which ever the Destroyer yet destroyed,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Amidst the roar of liberated Rome,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of nations freed, and the world overjoyed,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some hands unseen strewed flowers upon his tomb:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps the weakness of a heart not void", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of feeling for some kindness done, when Power", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had left the wretch an uncorrupted hour.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But I’m digressing; what on earth has Nero,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or any such like sovereign buffoons,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To do with the transactions of my hero,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More than such madmen’s fellow man⁠—the moon’s?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sure my invention must be down at zero,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I grown one of many “Wooden Spoons”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of verse, (the name with which we Cantabs please", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To dub the last of honours in degrees).", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I feel this tediousness will never do⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "T’ is being too epic, and I must cut down", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(In copying) this long canto into two;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They’ll never find it out, unless I own", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The fact, excepting some experienced few;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then as an improvement ’twill be shown:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I’ll prove that such the opinion of the critic is", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Aristotle passim.⁠—See Ποιητικης.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }