Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50)

by Homer

  LXXXV.

  Adieu, fair Cadiz! yea, a long adieu!

  Who may forget how well thy walls have stood?

  When all were changing, thou alone wert true,

  First to be free, and last to be subdued.

  And if amidst a scene, a shock so rude,

  Some native blood was seen thy streets to dye,

  A traitor only fell beneath the feud:

  Here all were noble, save nobility;

  None hugged a conqueror’s chain save fallen Chivalry!

  LXXXVI.

  Such be the sons of Spain, and strange her fate!

  They fight for freedom, who were never free;

  A kingless people for a nerveless state,

  Her vassals combat when their chieftains flee,

  True to the veriest slaves of Treachery;

  Fond of a land which gave them nought but life,

  Pride points the path that leads to liberty;

  Back to the struggle, baffled in the strife,

  War, war is still the cry, ‘War even to the knife!’

  LXXXVII.

  Ye, who would more of Spain and Spaniards know,

  Go, read whate’er is writ of bloodiest strife:

  Whate’er keen Vengeance urged on foreign foe

  Can act, is acting there against man’s life:

  From flashing scimitar to secret knife,

  War mouldeth there each weapon to his need -

  So may he guard the sister and the wife,

  So may he make each curst oppressor bleed,

  So may such foes deserve the most remorseless deed!

  LXXXVIII.

  Flows there a tear of pity for the dead?

  Look o’er the ravage of the reeking plain:

  Look on the hands with female slaughter red;

  Then to the dogs resign the unburied slain,

  Then to the vulture let each corse remain;

  Albeit unworthy of the prey-bird’s maw,

  Let their bleached bones, and blood’s unbleaching stain,

  Long mark the battle-field with hideous awe:

  Thus only may our sons conceive the scenes we saw!

  LXXXIX.

  Nor yet, alas, the dreadful work is done;

  Fresh legions pour adown the Pyrenees:

  It deepens still, the work is scarce begun,

  Nor mortal eye the distant end foresees.

  Fall’n nations gaze on Spain: if freed, she frees

  More than her fell Pizarros once enchained.

  Strange retribution! now Columbia’s ease

  Repairs the wrongs that Quito’s sons sustained,

  While o’er the parent clime prowls Murder unrestrained.

  XC.

  Not all the blood at Talavera shed,

  Not all the marvels of Barossa’s fight,

  Not Albuera lavish of the dead,

  Have won for Spain her well-asserted right.

  When shall her Olive-Branch be free from blight?

  When shall she breathe her from the blushing toil?

  How many a doubtful day shall sink in night,

  Ere the Frank robber turn him from his spoil,

  And Freedom’s stranger-tree grow native of the soil?

  XCI.

  And thou, my friend! since unavailing woe

  Bursts from my heart, and mingles with the strain -

  Had the sword laid thee with the mighty low,

  Pride might forbid e’en Friendship to complain:

  But thus unlaurelled to descend in vain,

  By all forgotten, save the lonely breast,

  And mix unbleeding with the boasted slain,

  While glory crowns so many a meaner crest!

  What hadst thou done, to sink so peacefully to rest?

  XCII.

  Oh, known the earliest, and esteemed the most!

  Dear to a heart where nought was left so dear!

  Though to my hopeless days for ever lost,

  In dreams deny me not to see thee here!

  And Morn in secret shall renew the tear

  Of Consciousness awaking to her woes,

  And Fancy hover o’er thy bloodless bier,

  Till my frail frame return to whence it rose,

  And mourned and mourner lie united in repose.

  XCIII.

  Here is one fytte of Harold’s pilgrimage.

  Ye who of him may further seek to know,

  Shall find some tidings in a future page,

  If he that rhymeth now may scribble moe.

  Is this too much? Stern critic, say not so:

  Patience! and ye shall hear what he beheld

  In other lands, where he was doomed to go:

  Lands that contain the monuments of eld,

  Ere Greece and Grecian arts by barbarous hands were quelled.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  The Destruction of Sennacherib

  George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824)

  THE ASSYRIAN came down like the wolf on the fold,

  And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

  And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

  When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

  Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, 5

  That host with their banners at sunset were seen:

  Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,

  That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

  For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,

  And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; 10

  And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,

  And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

  And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

  But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;

  And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, 15

  And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

  And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

  With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:

  And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

  The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown. 20

  And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,

  And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

  And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

  Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Youth and Age

  George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824)

  THERE’S not a joy the world can give like that it takes away

  When the glow of early thought declines in feeling’s dull decay;

  ’Tis not on youth’s smooth cheek the blush alone, which fades so fast,

  But the tender bloom of heart is gone, ere youth itself be past.

  Then the few whose spirits float above the wreck of happiness 5

  Are driven o’er the shoals of guilt, or ocean of excess:

  The magnet of their course is gone, or only points in vain

  The shore to which their shiver’d sail shall never stretch again.

  Then the mortal coldness of the soul like death itself comes down;

  It cannot feel for others’ woes, it dare not dream its own; 10

  That heavy chill has frozen o’er the fountain of our tears,

  And though the eye may sparkle still, ’tis where the ice appears.

  Though wit may flash from fluent lips, and mirth distract the breast,

  Through midnight hours that yield no more their former hope of rest;

  ’Tis but as ivy-leaves around the ruin’d turret wreathe, 15

  All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and gray beneath.

  O could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been,

  Or weep as I could once have
wept o’er many a vanish’d scene, —

  As springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though they be,

  So midst the wither’d waste of life, those tears would flow to me! 20

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Elegy on Thyrza

  George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824)

  AND thou art dead, as young and fair

  As aught of mortal birth;

  And forms so soft and charms so rare

  Too soon return’d to Earth!

  Though Earth received them in her bed, 5

  And o’er the spot the crowd may tread

  In carelessness or mirth,

  There is an eye which could not brook

  A moment on that grave to look.

  I will not ask where thou liest low 10

  Nor gaze upon the spot;

  There flowers or weeds at will may grow

  So I behold them not:

  It is enough for me to prove

  That what I loved, and long must love 15

  Like common earth can rot;

  To me there needs no stone to tell

  ’Tis Nothing that I loved so well.

  Yet did I love thee to the last,

  As fervently as thou 20

  Who didst not change through all the past

  And canst not alter now.

  The love where Death has set his seal

  Nor age can chill, nor rival steal,

  Nor falsehood disavow: 25

  And, what were worse, thou canst not see

  Or wrong, or change, or fault in me.

  The better days of life were ours;

  The worst can be but mine:

  The sun that cheers, the storm that lours, 30

  Shall never more be thine.

  The silence of that dreamless sleep

  I envy now too much to weep;

  Nor need I to repine

  That all those charms have pass’d away 35

  I might have watch’d through long decay.

  The flower in ripen’d bloom unmatch’d

  Must fall the earliest prey;

  Though by no hand untimely snatch’d,

  The leaves must drop away. 40

  And yet it were a greater grief

  To watch it withering, leaf by leaf,

  Than see it pluck’d today;

  Since earthly eye but ill can bear

  To trace the change to foul from fair. 45

  I know not if I could have borne

  To see thy beauties fade;

  The night that follow’d such a morn

  Had worn a deeper shade:

  Thy day without a cloud hath past, 50

  And thou wert lovely to the last,

  Extinguish’d, not decay’d;

  As stars that shoot along the sky

  Shine brightest as they fall from high.

  As once I wept, if I could weep, 55

  My tears might well be shed

  To think I was not near, to keep

  One vigil o’er thy bed:

  To gaze, how fondly! on thy face,

  To fold thee in a faint embrace, 60

  Uphold thy drooping head;

  And show that love, however vain,

  Nor thou nor I can feel again.

  Yet how much less it were to gain,

  Though thou hast left me free, 65

  The loveliest things that still remain

  Than thus remember thee!

  The all of thine that cannot die

  Through dark and dread Eternity

  Returns again to me, 70

  And more thy buried love endears

  Than aught except its living years.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  When We Two Parted

  George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824)

  WHEN we two parted

  In silence and tears,

  Half broken-hearted,

  To sever for years,

  Pale grew thy cheek and cold, 5

  Colder thy kiss;

  Truly that hour foretold

  Sorrow to this!

  The dew of the morning

  Sunk chill on my brow; 10

  It felt like the warning

  Of what I feel now.

  Thy vows are all broken,

  And light is thy fame:

  I hear thy name spoken 15

  And share in its shame.

  They name thee before me,

  A knell to mine ear;

  A shudder comes o’er me —

  Why wert thou so dear? 20

  They know not I knew thee

  Who knew thee too well:

  Long, long shall I rue thee

  Too deeply to tell.

  In secret we met: 25

  In silence I grieve

  That thy heart could forget,

  Thy spirit deceive.

  If I should meet thee

  After long years, 30

  How should I greet thee? —

  With silence and tears.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  For Music

  George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824)

  THERE be none of Beauty’s daughters

  With a magic like thee;

  And like music on the waters

  Is thy sweet voice to me:

  When, as if its sound were causing 5

  The charmed ocean’s pausing,

  The waves lie still and gleaming,

  And the lull’d winds seem dreaming:

  And the midnight moon is weaving

  Her bright chain o’er the deep, 10

  Whose breast is gently heaving

  As an infant’s asleep:

  So the spirit bows before thee

  To listen and adore thee;

  With a full but soft emotion, 15

  Like the swell of Summer’s ocean.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  She Walks in Beauty

  George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824)

  SHE walks in beauty, like the night

  Of cloudless climes and starry skies,

  And all that’s best of dark and bright

  Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

  Thus mellow’d to that tender light 5

  Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

  One shade the more, one ray the less,

  Had half impair’d the nameless grace

  Which waves in every raven tress

  Or softly lightens o’er her face, 10

  Where thoughts serenely sweet express

  How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

  And on that cheek and o’er that brow

  So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

  The smiles that win, the tints that glow 15

  But tell of days in goodness spent, —

  A mind at peace with all below,

  A heart whose love is innocent.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  All for Love

  George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824)

  O TALK not to me of a name great in story;

  The days of our youth are the days of our glory;

  And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty

  Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty.

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

  ’Tis but as a dead flower with May-dew besprinkled:

  Then away with all such from the head that is hoary —

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

  Oh Fame! — if I e’er took delight in thy praises,

  ’Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases, 10

  Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover

  Sh
e thought that I was not unworthy to love her.

  There chiefly I sought thee, there only I found thee;

  Her glance was the best of the rays that surround thee;

  When it sparkled o’er aught that was bright in my story, 15

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

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Elegy

  George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824)

  O SNATCH’D away in beauty’s bloom!

  On thee shall press no ponderous tomb;

  But on thy turf shall roses rear

  Their leaves, the earliest of the year,

  And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom: 5

  And oft by yon blue gushing stream

  Shall Sorrow lean her drooping head,

  And feed deep thought with many a dream,

  And lingering pause and lightly tread;

  Fond wretch! as if her step disturb’d the dead. 10

  Away! we know that tears are vain,

  That Death nor heeds nor hears distress:

  Will this unteach us to complain?

  Or make one mourner weep the less?

  And thou, who tell’st me to forget, 15

  Thy looks are wan, thine eyes are wet.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  To Augusta

  George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824)

  THOUGH the day of my destiny’s over,

  And the star of my fate hath declined,