{ "id": "lord-byron/canto-iv", "title": "Canto IV", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Lord Byron", "poet_slug": "lord-byron", "language": "en", "book": "Don Juan", "book_slug": "don-juan", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 6, "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-4.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": 936, "n_stanzas": 117, 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"text": "For oftentimes when Pegasus seems winning", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The race, he sprains a wing, and down we tend,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like Lucifer when hurled from Heaven for sinning;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our sin the same, and hard as his to mend,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Being Pride, which leads the mind to soar too far,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till our own weakness shows us what we are.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But Time, which brings all beings to their level,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sharp Adversity, will teach at last", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Man⁠—and, as we would hope⁠—perhaps the Devil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That neither of their intellects are vast:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While Youth’s hot wishes in our red veins revel,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We know not this⁠—the blood flows on too fast;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But as the torrent widens towards the Ocean,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We ponder deeply on each past emotion.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "As boy, I thought myself a clever fellow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wished that others held the same opinion;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They took it up when my days grew more mellow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And other minds acknowledged my dominion:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Now my sere Fancy “falls into the yellow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Leaf,” and Imagination droops her pinion,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And the sad truth which hovers o’er my desk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Turns what was once romantic to burlesque.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And if I laugh at any mortal thing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis that I may not weep; and if I weep,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis that our nature cannot always bring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Itself to apathy, for we must steep", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Our hearts first in the depths of Lethe’s spring,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ere what we least wish to behold will sleep:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thetis baptized her mortal son in Styx;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A mortal mother would on Lethe fix.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some have accused me of a strange design", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the creed and morals of the land,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And trace it in this poem every line:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I don’t pretend that I quite understand", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My own meaning when I would be very fine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But the fact is that I have nothing planned,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Unless it were to be a moment merry⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A novel word in my vocabulary.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To the kind reader of our sober clime", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This way of writing will appear exotic;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Pulci was sire of the half-serious rhyme,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who sang when Chivalry was more quixotic,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And revelled in the fancies of the time,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "True Knights, chaste Dames, huge Giants, Kings despotic;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But all these, save the last, being obsolete,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I chose a modern subject as more meet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "How I have treated it, I do not know;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps no better than they have treated me,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who have imputed such designs as show", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not what they saw, but what they wished to see:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But if it gives them pleasure, be it so;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This is a liberal age, and thoughts are free:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Meantime Apollo plucks me by the ear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tells me to resume my story here.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Young Juan and his lady-love were left", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To their own hearts’ most sweet society;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Even Time the pitiless in sorrow cleft", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With his rude scythe such gentle bosoms; he", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sighed to behold them of their hours bereft,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though foe to Love; and yet they could not be", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Meant to grow old, but die in happy Spring,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before one charm or hope had taken wing.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Their faces were not made for wrinkles, their", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pure blood to stagnate, their great hearts to fail;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The blank grey was not made to blast their hair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But like the climes that know nor snow nor hail,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They were all summer; lightning might assail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shiver them to ashes, but to trail", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A long and snake-like life of dull decay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was not for them⁠—they had too little clay.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They were alone once more; for them to be", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thus was another Eden; they were never", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Weary, unless when separate: the tree", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cut from its forest root of years⁠—the river", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Dammed from its fountain⁠—the child from the knee", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And breast maternal weaned at once for ever⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Would wither less than these two torn apart;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Alas! there is no instinct like the Heart⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Heart⁠—which may be broken: happy they!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thrice fortunate! who of that fragile mould,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The precious porcelain of human clay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Break with the first fall: they can ne’er behold", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The long year linked with heavy day on day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all which must be borne, and never told;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While Life’s strange principle will often lie", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deepest in those who long the most to die.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Whom the gods love die young,” was said of yore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many deaths do they escape by this:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The death of friends, and that which slays even more⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The death of Friendship, Love, Youth, all that is,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Except mere breath; and since the silent shore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Awaits at last even those who longest miss", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The old Archer’s shafts, perhaps the early grave", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which men weep over may be meant to save.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Haidée and Juan thought not of the dead⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Heavens, and Earth, and Air, seemed made for them:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They found no fault with Time, save that he fled;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They saw not in themselves aught to condemn:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Each was the other’s mirror, and but read", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Joy sparkling in their dark eyes like a gem,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And knew such brightness was but the reflection", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of their exchanging glances of affection.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The gentle pressure, and the thrilling touch,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The least glance better understood than words,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which still said all, and ne’er could say too much;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A language, too, but like to that of birds,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Known but to them, at least appearing such", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As but to lovers a true sense affords;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sweet playful phrases, which would seem absurd", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To those who have ceased to hear such, or ne’er heard⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "All these were theirs, for they were children still,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And children still they should have ever been;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They were not made in the real world to fill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A busy character in the dull scene,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But like two beings born from out a rill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A Nymph and her belovèd, all unseen", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To pass their lives in fountains and on flowers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And never know the weight of human hours.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Moons changing had rolled on, and changeless found", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those their bright rise had lighted to such joys", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As rarely they beheld throughout their round;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And these were not of the vain kind which cloys,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For theirs were buoyant spirits, never bound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By the mere senses; and that which destroys", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Most love⁠—possession⁠—unto them appeared", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thing which each endearment more endeared.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Oh beautiful! and rare as beautiful!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But theirs was Love in which the Mind delights", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To lose itself, when the old world grows dull,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And we are sick of its hack sounds and sights,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Intrigues, adventures of the common school,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its petty passions, marriages, and flights,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Where Hymen’s torch but brands one strumpet more,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose husband only knows her not a whore.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Hard words⁠—harsh truth! a truth which many know.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enough.⁠—The faithful and the fairy pair,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who never found a single hour too slow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What was it made them thus exempt from care?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Young innate feelings all have felt below,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which perish in the rest, but in them were", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Inherent⁠—what we mortals call romantic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And always envy, though we deem it frantic.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "This is in others a factitious state,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An opium dream of too much youth and reading,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But was in them their nature or their fate:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No novels e’er had set their young hearts bleeding,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For Haidée’s knowledge was by no means great,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Juan was a boy of saintly breeding;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "So that there was no reason for their loves", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More than for those of nightingales or doves.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They gazed upon the sunset; ’tis an hour", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dear unto all, but dearest to their eyes,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For it had made them what they were: the power", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Love had first o’erwhelmed them from such skies,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When Happiness had been their only dower,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Twilight saw them linked in Passion’s ties;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Charmed with each other, all things charmed that brought", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The past still welcome as the present thought.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I know not why, but in that hour to-night,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even as they gazed, a sudden tremor came,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And swept, as ’twere, across their hearts’ delight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like the wind o’er a harp-string, or a flame,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When one is shook in sound, and one in sight:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thus some boding flashed through either frame,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And called from Juan’s breast a faint low sigh,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While one new tear arose in Haidée’s eye.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "That large black prophet eye seemed to dilate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And follow far the disappearing sun,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As if their last day of a happy date", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With his broad, bright, and dropping orb were gone;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Juan gazed on her as to ask his fate⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He felt a grief, but knowing cause for none,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His glance inquired of hers for some excuse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For feelings causeless, or at least abstruse.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She turned to him, and smiled, but in that sort", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which makes not others smile; then turned aside:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whatever feeling shook her, it seemed short,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And mastered by her wisdom or her pride;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When Juan spoke, too⁠—it might be in sport⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of this their mutual feeling, she replied⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "“If it should be so⁠—but⁠—it cannot be⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or I at least shall not survive to see.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan would question further, but she pressed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His lip to hers, and silenced him with this,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And then dismissed the omen from her breast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Defying augury with that fond kiss;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And no doubt of all methods ’tis the best:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some people prefer wine⁠—’tis not amiss;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I have tried both⁠—so those who would a part take", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May choose between the headache and the heartache.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "One of the two, according to your choice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Woman or wine, you’ll have to undergo;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Both maladies are taxes on our joys:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But which to choose, I really hardly know;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And if I had to give a casting voice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For both sides I could many reasons show,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And then decide, without great wrong to either,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It were much better to have both than neither.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan and Haidée gazed upon each other", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With swimming looks of speechless tenderness,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which mixed all feelings⁠—friend, child, lover, brother⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All that the best can mingle and express", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When two pure hearts are poured in one another,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And love too much, and yet can not love less;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But almost sanctify the sweet excess", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By the immortal wish and power to bless.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Mixed in each other’s arms, and heart in heart,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Why did they not then die?⁠—they had lived too long", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Should an hour come to bid them breathe apart;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Years could but bring them cruel things or wrong;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The World was not for them⁠—nor the World’s art", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For beings passionate as Sappho’s song;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Love was born with them, in them, so intense,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It was their very Spirit⁠—not a sense.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They should have lived together deep in woods,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unseen as sings the nightingale; they were", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Unfit to mix in these thick solitudes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Called social, haunts of Hate, and Vice, and Care:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "How lonely every freeborn creature broods!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sweetest song-birds nestle in a pair;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The eagle soars alone; the gull and crow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flock o’er their carrion, just like men below.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now pillowed cheek to cheek, in loving sleep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Haidée and Juan their siesta took,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A gentle slumber, but it was not deep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For ever and anon a something shook", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Juan, and shuddering o’er his frame would creep;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Haidée’s sweet lips murmured like a brook", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A wordless music, and her face so fair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stirred with her dream, as rose-leaves with the air.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Or as the stirring of a deep clear stream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Within an Alpine hollow, when the wind", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Walks o’er it, was she shaken by the dream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mystical Usurper of the mind⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "O’erpowering us to be whate’er may seem", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Good to the soul which we no more can bind;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Strange state of being! (for ’tis still to be)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Senseless to feel, and with sealed eyes to see.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She dreamed of being alone on the sea-shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Chained to a rock; she knew not how, but stir", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She could not from the spot, and the loud roar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grew, and each wave rose roughly, threatening her;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And o’er her upper lip they seemed to pour,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until she sobbed for breath, and soon they were", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Foaming o’er her lone head, so fierce and high⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each broke to drown her, yet she could not die.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Anon⁠—she was released, and then she strayed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er the sharp shingles with her bleeding feet,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And stumbled almost every step she made:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And something rolled before her in a sheet,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which she must still pursue howe’er afraid:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas white and indistinct, nor stopped to meet", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her glance nor grasp, for still she gazed and grasped,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ran, but it escaped her as she clasped.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The dream changed:⁠—in a cave she stood, its walls", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were hung with marble icicles; the work", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of ages on its water-fretted halls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where waves might wash, and seals might breed and lurk;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her hair was dripping, and the very balls", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of her black eyes seemed turned to tears, and mirk", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The sharp rocks looked below each drop they caught,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which froze to marble as it fell⁠—she thought.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And wet, and cold, and lifeless at her feet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pale as the foam that frothed on his dead brow,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which she essayed in vain to clear, (how sweet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were once her cares, how idle seemed they now!)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Lay Juan, nor could aught renew the beat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of his quenched heart: and the sea dirges low", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Rang in her sad ears like a Mermaid’s song,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And that brief dream appeared a life too long.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And gazing on the dead, she thought his face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Faded, or altered into something new⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Like to her Father’s features, till each trace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More like and like to Lambro’s aspect grew⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With all his keen worn look and Grecian grace;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And starting, she awoke, and what to view?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Oh! Powers of Heaven! what dark eye meets she there?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis⁠—’tis her Father’s⁠—fixed upon the pair!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then shrieking, she arose, and shrieking fell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With joy and sorrow, hope and fear, to see", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Him whom she deemed a habitant where dwell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ocean-buried, risen from death, to be", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Perchance the death of one she loved too well:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dear as her father had been to Haidée,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "It was a moment of that awful kind⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I have seen such⁠—but must not call to mind.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Up Juan sprang to Haidée’s bitter shriek,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And caught her falling, and from off the wall", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Snatched down his sabre, in hot haste to wreak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Vengeance on him who was the cause of all:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Then Lambro, who till now forbore to speak,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Smiled scornfully, and said, “Within my call,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A thousand scimitars await the word;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Put up, young man, put up your silly sword.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And Haidée clung around him; “Juan, ’tis⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis Lambro⁠—’tis my father! Kneel with me⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He will forgive us⁠—yes⁠—it must be⁠—yes.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Oh! dearest father, in this agony", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of pleasure and of pain⁠—even while I kiss", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy garment’s hem with transport, can it be", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That doubt should mingle with my filial joy?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deal with me as thou wilt, but spare this boy.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "High and inscrutable the old man stood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Calm in his voice, and calm within his eye⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Not always signs with him of calmest mood:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He looked upon her, but gave no reply;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Then turned to Juan, in whose cheek the blood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Oft came and went, as there resolved to die;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In arms, at least, he stood, in act to spring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On the first foe whom Lambro’s call might bring.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Young man, your sword;” so Lambro once more said:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Juan replied, “Not while this arm is free.”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The old man’s cheek grew pale, but not with dread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And drawing from his belt a pistol he", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Replied, “Your blood be then on your own head.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then looked close at the flint, as if to see", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Twas fresh⁠—for he had lately used the lock⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And next proceeded quietly to cock.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It has a strange quick jar upon the ear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That cocking of a pistol, when you know", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A moment more will bring the sight to bear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon your person, twelve yards off, or so;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A gentlemanly distance, not too near,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If you have got a former friend for foe;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But after being fired at once or twice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ear becomes more Irish, and less nice.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Lambro presented, and one instant more", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had stopped this Canto, and Don Juan’s breath,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "When Haidée threw herself her boy before;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stern as her sire: “On me,” she cried, “let Death", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Descend⁠—the fault is mine; this fatal shore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He found⁠—but sought not. I have pledged my faith;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I love him⁠—I will die with him: I knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your nature’s firmness⁠—know your daughter’s too.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A minute past, and she had been all tears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tenderness, and infancy; but now", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She stood as one who championed human fears⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pale, statue-like, and stern, she wooed the blow;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And tall beyond her sex, and their compeers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She drew up to her height, as if to show", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A fairer mark; and with a fixed eye scanned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her Father’s face⁠—but never stopped his hand.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He gazed on her, and she on him; ’twas strange", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How like they looked! the expression was the same;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Serenely savage, with a little change", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In the large dark eye’s mutual-darted flame;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For she, too, was as one who could avenge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If cause should be⁠—a Lioness, though tame.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her Father’s blood before her Father’s face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Boiled up, and proved her truly of his race.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I said they were alike, their features and", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their stature, differing but in sex and years;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Even to the delicacy of their hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There was resemblance, such as true blood wears;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And now to see them, thus divided, stand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In fixed ferocity, when joyous tears", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And sweet sensations should have welcomed both,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shows what the passions are in their full growth.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The father paused a moment, then withdrew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His weapon, and replaced it; but stood still,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And looking on her, as to look her through,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Not I,” he said, “have sought this stranger’s ill;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Not I have made this desolation: few", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would bear such outrage, and forbear to kill;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But I must do my duty⁠—how thou hast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Done thine, the present vouches for the past.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Let him disarm; or, by my father’s head,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His own shall roll before you like a ball!”", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He raised his whistle, as the word he said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And blew; another answered to the call,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And rushing in disorderly, though led,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And armed from boot to turban, one and all,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some twenty of his train came, rank on rank;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He gave the word⁠—“Arrest or slay the Frank.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then, with a sudden movement, he withdrew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His daughter; while compressed within his clasp,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Twixt her and Juan interposed the crew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In vain she struggled in her father’s grasp⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His arms were like a serpent’s coil: then flew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon their prey, as darts an angry asp,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The file of pirates⁠—save the foremost, who", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had fallen, with his right shoulder half cut through.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The second had his cheek laid open; but", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The third, a wary, cool old sworder, took", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The blows upon his cutlass, and then put", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His own well in; so well, ere you could look,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His man was floored, and helpless at his foot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With the blood running like a little brook", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From two smart sabre gashes, deep and red⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One on the arm, the other on the head.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And then they bound him where he fell, and bore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Juan from the apartment: with a sign", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Old Lambro bade them take him to the shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where lay some ships which were to sail at nine.", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They laid him in a boat, and plied the oar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until they reached some galliots, placed in line;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "On board of one of these, and under hatches,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They stowed him, with strict orders to the watches.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The world is full of strange vicissitudes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And here was one exceedingly unpleasant:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A gentleman so rich in the world’s goods,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Handsome and young, enjoying all the present,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Just at the very time when he least broods", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On such a thing, is suddenly to sea sent,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Wounded and chained, so that he cannot move,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all because a lady fell in love.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here I must leave him, for I grow pathetic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Moved by the Chinese nymph of tears, green tea!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Than whom Cassandra was not more prophetic;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For if my pure libations exceed three,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I feel my heart become so sympathetic,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That I must have recourse to black Bohea:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis pity wine should be so deleterious,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For tea and coffee leave us much more serious,", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Unless when qualified with thee, Cogniac!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sweet Naïad of the Phlegethontic rill!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ah! why the liver wilt thou thus attack,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And make, like other nymphs, thy lovers ill?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I would take refuge in weak punch, but rack", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(In each sense of the word), whene’er I fill", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "My mild and midnight beakers to the brim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wakes me next morning with its synonym.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I leave Don Juan for the present, safe⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not sound, poor fellow, but severely wounded;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Yet could his corporal pangs amount to half", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of those with which his Haidée’s bosom bounded?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She was not one to weep, and rave, and chafe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then give way, subdued because surrounded;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her mother was a Moorish maid from Fez,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where all is Eden, or a wilderness.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There the large olive rains its amber store", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In marble fonts; there grain, and flower, and fruit,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Gush from the earth until the land runs o’er;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But there, too, many a poison-tree has root,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Midnight listens to the lion’s roar,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And long, long deserts scorch the camel’s foot,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Or heaving whelm the helpless caravan;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And as the soil is, so the heart of man.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Afric is all the Sun’s, and as her earth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her human clay is kindled; full of power", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For good or evil, burning from its birth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Moorish blood partakes the planet’s hour,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And like the soil beneath it will bring forth:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beauty and love were Haidée’s mother’s dower;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But her large dark eye showed deep Passion’s force,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though sleeping like a lion near a source.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Her daughter, tempered with a milder ray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like summer clouds all silvery, smooth, and fair,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Till slowly charged with thunder they display", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Terror to earth, and tempest to the air,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Had held till now her soft and milky way;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But overwrought with Passion and Despair,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The fire burst forth from her Numidian veins,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even as the Simoom sweeps the blasted plains.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The last sight which she saw was Juan’s gore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And he himself o’ermastered and cut down;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "His blood was running on the very floor", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where late he trod, her beautiful, her own;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thus much she viewed an instant and no more⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her struggles ceased with one convulsive groan;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "On her Sire’s arm, which until now scarce held", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her writhing, fell she like a cedar felled.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A vein had burst, and her sweet lips’ pure dyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were dabbled with the deep blood which ran o’er;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And her head drooped, as when the lily lies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’ercharged with rain: her summoned handmaids bore", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their lady to her couch with gushing eyes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of herbs and cordials they produced their store,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But she defied all means they could employ,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like one Life could not hold, nor Death destroy.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Days lay she in that state unchanged, though chill⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With nothing livid, still her lips were red;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She had no pulse, but Death seemed absent still;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No hideous sign proclaimed her surely dead;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Corruption came not in each mind to kill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All hope; to look upon her sweet face bred", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "New thoughts of Life, for it seemed full of soul⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She had so much, Earth could not claim the whole.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The ruling passion, such as marble shows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When exquisitely chiselled, still lay there,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But fixed as marble’s unchanged aspect throws", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er the fair Venus, but for ever fair;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "O’er the Laocoön’s all eternal throes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ever-dying Gladiator’s air,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their energy like life forms all their fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet looks not life, for they are still the same.⁠—", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She woke at length, but not as sleepers wake,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rather the dead, for Life seemed something new,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A strange sensation which she must partake", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perforce, since whatsoever met her view", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Struck not on memory, though a heavy ache", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lay at her heart, whose earliest beat still true", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Brought back the sense of pain without the cause,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For, for a while, the Furies made a pause.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She looked on many a face with vacant eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On many a token without knowing what:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She saw them watch her without asking why,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And recked not who around her pillow sat;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Not speechless, though she spoke not⁠—not a sigh", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Relieved her thoughts⁠—dull silence and quick chat", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Were tried in vain by those who served; she gave", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No sign, save breath, of having left the grave.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Her handmaids tended, but she heeded not;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her Father watched, she turned her eyes away;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "She recognised no being, and no spot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "However dear or cherished in their day;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They changed from room to room⁠—but all forgot⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gentle, but without memory she lay;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At length those eyes, which they would fain be weaning", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Back to old thoughts, waxed full of fearful meaning.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And then a slave bethought her of a harp;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The harper came, and tuned his instrument;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "At the first notes, irregular and sharp,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On him her flashing eyes a moment bent,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Then to the wall she turned as if to warp", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her thoughts from sorrow through her heart re-sent;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And he began a long low island-song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of ancient days, ere Tyranny grew strong.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Anon her thin wan fingers beat the wall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In time to his old tune: he changed the theme,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And sung of Love; the fierce name struck through all", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her recollection; on her flashed the dream", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of what she was, and is, if ye could call", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To be so being; in a gushing stream", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The tears rushed forth from her o’erclouded brain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like mountain mists at length dissolved in rain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Short solace, vain relief!⁠—Thought came too quick,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And whirled her brain to madness; she arose", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As one who ne’er had dwelt among the sick,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And flew at all she met, as on her foes;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But no one ever heard her speak or shriek,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Although her paroxysm drew towards its close;⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Hers was a frenzy which disdained to rave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even when they smote her, in the hope to save.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Yet she betrayed at times a gleam of sense;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nothing could make her meet her Father’s face,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though on all other things with looks intense", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She gazed, but none she ever could retrace;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Food she refused, and raiment; no pretence", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Availed for either; neither change of place,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Nor time, nor skill, nor remedy, could give her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Senses to sleep⁠—the power seemed gone for ever.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Twelve days and nights she withered thus; at last,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without a groan, or sigh, or glance, to show", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A parting pang, the spirit from her passed:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And they who watched her nearest could not know", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The very instant, till the change that cast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her sweet face into shadow, dull and slow,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Glazed o’er her eyes⁠—the beautiful, the black⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Oh! to possess such lustre⁠—and then lack!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She died, but not alone; she held, within,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A second principle of Life, which might", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Have dawned a fair and sinless child of sin;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But closed its little being without light,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And went down to the grave unborn, wherein", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blossom and bough lie withered with one blight;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In vain the dews of Heaven descend above", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bleeding flower and blasted fruit of Love.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Thus lived⁠—thus died she; never more on her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shall Sorrow light, or Shame. She was not made", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Through years or moons the inner weight to bear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which colder hearts endure till they are laid", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By age in earth: her days and pleasures were", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brief, but delightful⁠—such as had not staid", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Long with her destiny; but she sleeps well", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By the sea-shore, whereon she loved to dwell.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "That isle is now all desolate and bare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its dwellings down, its tenants passed away;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "None but her own and Father’s grave is there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And nothing outward tells of human clay;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ye could not know where lies a thing so fair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No stone is there to show, no tongue to say,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "What was; no dirge, except the hollow sea’s,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mourns o’er the beauty of the Cyclades.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But many a Greek maid in a loving song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sighs o’er her name; and many an islander", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With her Sire’s story makes the night less long;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Valour was his, and Beauty dwelt with her:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "If she loved rashly, her life paid for wrong⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A heavy price must all pay who thus err,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In some shape; let none think to fly the danger,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For soon or late Love is his own avenger.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But let me change this theme, which grows too sad,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lay this sheet of sorrows on the shelf;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I don’t much like describing people mad,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For fear of seeming rather touched myself⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Besides, I’ve no more on this head to add;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And as my Muse is a capricious elf,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "We’ll put about, and try another tack", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Juan, left half-killed some stanzas back.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Wounded and fettered, “cabined, cribbed, confined,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some days and nights elapsed before that he", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Could altogether call the past to mind;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when he did, he found himself at sea,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sailing six knots an hour before the wind;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shores of Ilion lay beneath their lee⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Another time he might have liked to see ’em,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But now was not much pleased with Cape Sigeum.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There, on the green and village-cotted hill, is", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Flanked by the Hellespont, and by the sea)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Entombed the bravest of the brave, Achilles;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They say so⁠—(Bryant says the contrary):", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And further downward, tall and towering still, is", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tumulus⁠—of whom? Heaven knows! ’t may be", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Patroclus, Ajax, or Protesilaus⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All heroes, who if living still would slay us.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "High barrows, without marble, or a name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A vast, untilled, and mountain-skirted plain,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And Ida in the distance, still the same,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And old Scamander (if ’tis he) remain;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The situation seems still formed for fame⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A hundred thousand men might fight again,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With ease; but where I sought for Ilion’s walls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The quiet sheep feeds, and the tortoise crawls;", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Troops of untended horses; here and there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some little hamlets, with new names uncouth;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Some shepherds (unlike Paris) led to stare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A moment at the European youth", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Whom to the spot their school-boy feelings bear;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A Turk, with beads in hand, and pipe in mouth,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Extremely taken with his own religion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are what I found there⁠—but the devil a Phrygian.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Don Juan, here permitted to emerge", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From his dull cabin, found himself a slave;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Forlorn, and gazing on the deep blue surge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’ershadowed there by many a Hero’s grave;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Weak still with loss of blood, he scarce could urge", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A few brief questions; and the answers gave", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "No very satisfactory information", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About his past or present situation.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He saw some fellow captives, who appeared", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To be Italians (as they were in fact)⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From them, at least, their destiny he heard,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which was an odd one; a troop going to act", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In Sicily⁠—all singers, duly reared", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In their vocation, had not been attacked", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In sailing from Livorno by the pirate,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But sold by the impresario at no high rate.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "By one of these, the buffo of the party,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Juan was told about their curious case;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "For although destined to the Turkish mart, he", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still kept his spirits up⁠—at least his face;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The little fellow really looked quite hearty,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bore him with some gaiety and grace,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Showing a much more reconciled demeanour,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than did the prima donna and the tenor.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In a few words he told their hapless story,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saying, “Our Machiavelian impresario,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Making a signal off some promontory,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hailed a strange brig⁠—Corpo di Caio Mario!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "We were transferred on board her in a hurry,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without a single scudo of salario;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But if the Sultan has a taste for song,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We will revive our fortunes before long.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“The prima donna, though a little old,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And haggard with a dissipated life,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And subject, when the house is thin, to cold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has some good notes; and then the tenor’s wife,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With no great voice, is pleasing to behold;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Last carnival she made a deal of strife,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By carrying off Count Cesare Cicogna", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From an old Roman Princess at Bologna.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“And then there are the dancers; there’s the Nini,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With more than one profession gains by all;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Then there’s that laughing slut the Pelegrini,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She, too, was fortunate last Carnival,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And made at least five hundred good zecchini,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But spends so fast, she has not now a paul;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And then there’s the Grotesca⁠—such a dancer!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where men have souls or bodies she must answer.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“As for the figuranti, they are like", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rest of all that tribe; with here and there", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A pretty person, which perhaps may strike⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rest are hardly fitted for a fair;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "There’s one, though tall and stiffer than a pike,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet has a sentimental kind of air", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which might go far, but she don’t dance with vigour⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The more’s the pity, with her face and figure.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“As for the men, they are a middling set;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The musico is but a cracked old basin,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But, being qualified in one way yet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May the seraglio do to set his face in,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And as a servant some preferment get;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His singing I no further trust can place in:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From all the Pope makes yearly ’t would perplex", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To find three perfect pipes of the third sex.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“The tenor’s voice is spoilt by affectation;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And for the bass, the beast can only bellow⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In fact, he had no singing education,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An ignorant, noteless, timeless, tuneless fellow;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But being the prima donna’s near relation,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who swore his voice was very rich and mellow,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They hired him, though to hear him you’d believe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An ass was practising recitative.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“ ’T would not become myself to dwell upon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My own merits, and though young⁠—I see, Sir⁠—you", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Have got a travelled air, which speaks you one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To whom the opera is by no means new:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "You’ve heard of Raucocanti?⁠—I’m the man;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The time may come when you may hear me too;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "You was not last year at the fair of Lugo,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But next, when I’m engaged to sing there⁠—do go.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Our baritone I almost had forgot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A pretty lad, but bursting with conceit;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With graceful action, science not a jot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A voice of no great compass, and not sweet,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "He always is complaining of his lot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forsooth, scarce fit for ballads in the street;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "In lovers’ parts his passion more to breathe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Having no heart to show, he shows his teeth.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here Raucocanti’s eloquent recital", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was interrupted by the pirate crew,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who came at stated moments to invite all", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The captives back to their sad berths; each threw", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A rueful glance upon the waves, (which bright all", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From the blue skies derived a double blue,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Dancing all free and happy in the sun,)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then went down the hatchway one by one.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They heard next day⁠—that in the Dardanelles,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Waiting for his Sublimity’s firman,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The most imperative of sovereign spells,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which everybody does without who can,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "More to secure them in their naval cells,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lady to lady, well as man to man,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Were to be chained and lotted out per couple,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For the slave market of Constantinople.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It seems when this allotment was made out,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There chanced to be an odd male, and odd female,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who (after some discussion and some doubt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If the soprano might be deemed to be male,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "They placed him o’er the women as a scout)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were linked together, and it happened the male", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Was Juan⁠—who, an awkward thing at his age,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Paired off with a Bacchante blooming visage.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With Raucocanti lucklessly was chained", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tenor; these two hated with a hate", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Found only on the stage, and each more pained", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With this his tuneful neighbour than his fate;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Sad strife arose, for they were so cross-grained,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Instead of bearing up without debate,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That each pulled different ways with many an oath,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Arcades ambo,” id est⁠—blackguards both.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Juan’s companion was a Romagnole,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But bred within the march of old Ancona,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "With eyes that looked into the very soul", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(And other chief points of a bella donna),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Bright⁠—and as black and burning as a coal;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And through her clear brunette complexion shone a", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Great wish to please⁠—a most attractive dower,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Especially when added to the power.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But all that power was wasted upon him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Sorrow o’er each sense held stern command;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her eye might flash on his, but found it dim:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And though thus chained, as natural her hand", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Touched his, nor that⁠—nor any handsome limb", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(And she had some not easy to withstand)", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Could stir his pulse, or make his faith feel brittle;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps his recent wounds might help a little.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "No matter; we should ne’er too much inquire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But facts are facts: no Knight could be more true,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And firmer faith no Ladye-love desire;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We will omit the proofs, save one or two:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis said no one in hand “can hold a fire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By thought of frosty Caucasus”⁠—but few,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I really think⁠—yet Juan’s then ordeal", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was more triumphant, and not much less real.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here I might enter on a chaste description,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Having withstood temptation in my youth,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But hear that several people take exception", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At the first two books having too much truth;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Therefore I’ll make Don Juan leave the ship soon,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because the publisher declares, in sooth,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Through needles’ eyes it easier for the camel is", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To pass, than those two cantos into families.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Tis all the same to me; I’m fond of yielding,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And therefore leave them to the purer page", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Of Smollett, Prior, Ariosto, Fielding,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who say strange things for so correct an age;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I once had great alacrity in wielding", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My pen, and liked poetic war to wage,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And recollect the time when all this cant", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would have provoked remarks⁠—which now it shan’t.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "As boys love rows, my boyhood liked a squabble;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But at this hour I wish to part in peace,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Leaving such to the literary rabble;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whether my verse’s fame be doomed to cease", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "While the right hand which wrote it still is able,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or of some centuries to take a lease,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The grass upon my grave will grow as long,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sigh to midnight winds, but not to song.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Of poets who come down to us through distance", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of time and tongues, the foster-babes of Fame,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Life seems the smallest portion of existence;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where twenty ages gather o’er a name,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "’Tis as a snowball which derives assistance", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From every flake, and yet rolls on the same,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Even till an iceberg it may chance to grow;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But, after all, ’tis nothing but cold snow.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And so great names are nothing more than nominal,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And love of Glory’s but an airy lust,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Too often in its fury overcoming all", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who would as ’twere identify their dust", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "From out the wide destruction, which, entombing all,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Leaves nothing till “the coming of the just”⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Save change: I’ve stood upon Achilles’ tomb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And heard Troy doubted; Time will doubt of Rome.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The very generations of the dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are swept away, and tomb inherits tomb,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Until the memory of an Age is fled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, buried, sinks beneath its offspring’s doom:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Where are the epitaphs our fathers read?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Save a few gleaned from the sepulchral gloom", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Which once-named myriads nameless lie beneath,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lose their own in universal Death.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I canter by the spot each afternoon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where perished in his fame the hero-boy,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who lived too long for men, but died too soon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For human vanity, the young De Foix!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "A broken pillar, not uncouthly hewn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But which Neglect is hastening to destroy,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Records Ravenna’s carnage on its face,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While weeds and ordure rankle round the base.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "I pass each day where Dante’s bones are laid:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little cupola, more neat than solemn,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Protects his dust, but reverence here is paid", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To the Bard’s tomb, and not the Warrior’s column:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The time must come, when both alike decayed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Chieftain’s trophy, and the Poet’s volume,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Will sink where lie the songs and wars of earth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before Pelides’ death, or Homer’s birth.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With human blood that column was cemented,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With human filth that column is defiled,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As if the peasant’s coarse contempt were vented", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To show his loathing of the spot he soiled:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Thus is the trophy used, and thus lamented", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should ever be those blood-hounds, from whose wild", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Instinct of gore and glory Earth has known", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those sufferings Dante saw in Hell alone.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Yet there will still be bards: though Fame is smoke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its fumes are frankincense to human thought;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And the unquiet feelings, which first woke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Song in the world, will seek what then they sought;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As on the beach the waves at last are broke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thus to their extreme verge the passions brought", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Dash into poetry, which is but Passion,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or, at least, was so ere it grew a fashion.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "If in the course of such a life as was", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At once adventurous and contemplative,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Men who partake all passions as they pass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Acquire the deep and bitter power to give", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Their images again as in a glass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in such colours that they seem to live;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "You may do right forbidding them to show ’em,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But spoil (I think) a very pretty poem.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Oh! ye, who make the fortunes of all books!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Benign Ceruleans of the second sex!", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Who advertise new poems by your looks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your “Imprimatur” will ye not annex?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "What! must I go to the oblivious cooks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those Cornish plunderers of Parnassian wrecks?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Ah! must I then the only minstrel be,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Proscribed from tasting your Castalian tea!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "What! can I prove “a lion” then no more?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A ball-room bard, a foolscap, hot-press darling?", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "To bear the compliments of many a bore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sigh, “I can’t get out,” like Yorick’s starling;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Why then I’ll swear, as poet Wordy swore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Because the world won’t read him, always snarling),", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "That Taste is gone, that Fame is but a lottery,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drawn by the blue-coat misses of a coterie.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Oh! “darkly, deeply, beautifully blue,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As some one somewhere sings about the sky,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And I, ye learnèd ladies, say of you;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They say your stockings are so⁠—(Heaven knows why,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I have examined few pair of that hue);", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blue as the garters which serenely lie", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Round the Patrician left-legs, which adorn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The festal midnight, and the levee morn.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Yet some of you are most seraphic creatures⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But times are altered since, a rhyming lover,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "You read my stanzas, and I read your features:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And⁠—but no matter, all those things are over;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Still I have no dislike to learnèd natures,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For sometimes such a world of virtues cover;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I knew one woman of that purple school,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The loveliest, chastest, best, but⁠—quite a fool.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Humboldt, “the first of travellers,” but not", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The last, if late accounts be accurate,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Invented, by some name I have forgot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As well as the sublime discovery’s date,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "An airy instrument, with which he sought", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To ascertain the atmospheric state,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "By measuring “the intensity of blue:”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Oh, Lady Daphne! let me measure you!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But to the narrative:⁠—The vessel bound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With slaves to sell off in the capital,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "After the usual process, might be found", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At anchor under the seraglio wall;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her cargo, from the plague being safe and sound,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were landed in the market, one and all;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And, there, with Georgians, Russians, and Circassians,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bought up for different purposes and passions.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some went off dearly; fifteen hundred dollars", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For one Circassian, a sweet girl, were given,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Warranted virgin; Beauty’s brightest colours", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had decked her out in all the hues of heaven:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Her sale sent home some disappointed bawlers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who bade on till the hundreds reached eleven;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "But when the offer went beyond, they knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas for the Sultan, and at once withdrew.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Twelve negresses from Nubia brought a price", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which the West Indian market scarce could bring⁠—", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Though Wilberforce, at last, has made it twice", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What ’twas ere Abolition; and the thing", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "Need not seem very wonderful, for Vice", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is always much more splendid than a King:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The Virtues, even the most exalted, Charity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are saving⁠—Vice spares nothing for a rarity.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But for the destiny of this young troop,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How some were bought by Pachas, some by Jews,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "How some to burdens were obliged to stoop,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And others rose to the command of crews", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "As renegadoes; while in hapless group,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hoping no very old Vizier might choose,", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "The females stood, as one by one they picked ’em,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make a mistress, or fourth wife, or victim:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "All this must be reserved for further song;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Also our Hero’s lot, howe’er unpleasant", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "(Because this Canto has become too long),", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must be postponed discreetly for the present;", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "I’m sensible redundancy is wrong,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But could not for the Muse of me put less in ’t:", "indent": 1 }, { "text": "And now delay the progress of Don Juan,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till what is called in Ossian the fifth Duan.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }