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SONNET TO LAKE LEMAN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Rousseau, voltaire, our gibbon, and de stael
Last Line: Is proud, and makes the breath of glory real!
Alternate Author Name(s): Byron, Lord; Byron, 6th Baron
Variant Title(s): "lake Leman;""rousseau-voltaire-our Gibbon-and De Stael"";
Subject(s): Geneva (lake), Switzerland; Rousseau, Jean Jacques (1712-1778); Stael, Anna (necker) De (1766-1817); Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet De; Leman, Lake


Rousseau -- Voltaire -- our Gibbon -- and de Stael --
Leman! these names are worthy of thy shore,
Thy shore of names like these! wert thou no more,
Their memory thy remembrance would recall:
To them thy banks were lovely as to all,
But they have made them lovelier, for the lore
Of mighty minds doth hallow in the core
Of human hearts the ruin of a wall
Where dwelt the wise and wondrous; but by thee
How much more, Lake of Beauty! do we feel,
In sweetly gliding o'er thy crystal sea,
The wild glow of that not ungentle zeal,
Which of the heirs of immortality
Is proud, and makes the breath of glory real!





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