Damaetas

Damaetas  (1807)  by George Gordon, Lord Byron

Published as part of Hours of Idleness.

In law an infant, and in years a boy,
In mind a slave to every vicious joy;
   From every sense of shame and virtue wean’d;
   In lies an adept, in deceit a fiend;
Versed in hypocrisy, while yet a child;
Fickle as wind, of inclinations wild;
   Women his dupe, his heedless friend a tool;
   Old in the world, though scarcely broke from school;
Damætas ran through all the maze of sin,
And found the goal when others just begin:
   Even still conflicting passions shake his soul,
   And bid him drain the dregs of pleasure’s bowl;
But, pall’d with vice, he breaks his former chain,
And what was once his bliss appears his bane.

This work published before January 1, 1923 is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.