Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/447

Still to the "midst of things" he hastens on,
As if we witnessed all already done;^[1]
Leaves on his path whatever seems too mean
To raise the subject, or adorn the scene;
Gives, as each page improves upon the sight,
Not smoke from brightness, but from darkness—light;210
And truth and fiction with such art compounds,
We know not where to fix their several bounds.

⁠If you would please the Public, deign to hear
What soothes the many-headed monster's ear:^[2]
If your heart triumph when the hands of all
Applaud in thunder at the curtain's fall,
Deserve those plaudits—study Nature's page,
And sketch the striking traits of every age;
While varying Man and varying years unfold
Life's little tale, so oft, so vainly told;220
Observe his simple childhood's dawning days,
His pranks, his prate, his playmates, and his plays:
Till time at length the mannish tyro weans,
And prurient vice outstrips his tardy teens!^[3]

⁠Behold him Freshman! forced no more to groan^[4]

O'er Virgil's^[5] devilish verses and his own;

1. Through deeds we know not, though already done.—[MS. L. (a).]
2. What soothes the people's, Peer's, and Critic's ear. — [MS. L. (a).]
3. And Vice buds forth developed with his Teens.—[MS. M.]

4. 	⁠The beardless Tyro freed at length from school.—[MSS. L. (b), M. erased.]
   $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	And blushing Birch disdains all College rule.—[MS. M. erased.] And dreaded Birch.—[MS. L. (a and b).]

5. Harvey, the circulator of the circulation of the blood,