Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/193

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
CANTO II.]
CHILDE HAROLD’S PILGRIMAGE.
159

Such was the scene—what now remaineth here?
What sacred Trophy marks the hallowed ground,
Recording Freedom's smile and Asia's tear?'[1]
The rifled urn, the violated mound,[2]
The dust thy courser's hoof, rude stranger! spurns around.


XCI.

Yet to the remnants of thy Splendour past[3]
Shall pilgrims, pensive, but unwearied, throng;
Long shall the voyager, with th' Ionian blast,[4]
Hail the bright clime of Battle and of Song:
Long shall thine annals and immortal tongue
Fill with thy fame the youth of many a shore;
Boast of the agéd! lesson of the young!
Which Sages venerate and Bards adore.
As Pallas and the Muse unveil their awful lore.


XCII.

The parted bosom clings to wonted home,
If aught that's kindred cheer the welcome hearth;
He that is lonely—hither let him roam,
And gaze complacent on congenial earth.
Greece is no lightsome land of social mirth:

But he whom Sadness sootheth may abide,
  1. To tell what Asia troubled but to hear.—[MS. L.]
  2. [See note to Canto II. stanzas i.-xv., pp. 99, l00.]
  3. Long to the remnants ——.—[D.]
  4. [The "Ionian blast" is the western wind that brings the voyager across the Ionian Sea.]