Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LAST DAYS OF BYRON, by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES Poet's Biography First Line: Just at the point / of facing death in Last Line: Beaten forever by the mighty sea! Alternate Author Name(s): Roge, Mme. Subject(s): Byron, George Gordon, Lord (1788-1824); Missolonghi, Greece; Poetry & Poets; Byron, George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron; Mesolonghi, Greece; Mesolongion, Greece | ||||||||
JUST at the point Of facing death in fronting Moslem steel, Lo! in the fever's silent strife he sank! Out of the valorous yet chaotic Greeks His skill and nerve had gathered ordered ranks. May not the chaos of his passions first Have heard "light" summoned, and have felt its dawn? May not the liberty of God's own truth Have struck some shackles of his bondage off While he was seeking to make others free? Amid the blackness we must see and shun Gleams out a light wherein is read the hint Of the surpassing glory sin eclipsed. Who knows what age or illness might have wrought; Those two reformers of an evil life, That have of vilest sinners moulded saints? Be it not ours to cover vice of his, But to remember we have seen his worst, Which most men hide as niggards do their hoard. While thought drinks in the purest tones he struck, All her nerves tremble with bewildered joy: Round some creations such a splendor burns, He seems himself the very lyric god, Encircling whom great passions of the soul With linked hands, like maids of Helicon, Accord his power in faultless harmonies. Greece lives forever in his splendid verse, Which, should her relics utter ruins lie, Could bound her glory with immortal lines. Fitting that he who loved and sang of her Should breathe his life out on her lovely shore! Wave-beaten Missolonghi, it is thou That hold'st the parting secrets of that soul Not walled, like thee, with strength, but like thyself Beaten forever by the mighty sea! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OFF MESOLONGI by ALFRED AUSTIN A CHARACTER by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES A DAISY FROM THE PARTHENON by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES ANDRE by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES AT HAWTHORNE'S GRAVE by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES BRYANT'S BIRTHPLACE by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES DELAY by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES MARATHON, SELECTION by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES MOUNT AGASSIZ by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES RHODE ISLAND by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES |
|