II One shade the more, one ray the less, Or softly lightens o'er her face; III And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent! SONG OF SAUL BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE The death of Saul is related in 1 Samuel xxxi; though Byron's Song is of course purely imaginary. I ARRIORS and Chiefs! should the shaft or the sword WAR Pierce me in leading the host of the Lord, Heed not the corse, though a King's, in your path: II Thou who art bearing my buckler and bow, III Farewell to others, but never we part, VISION OF BELSHAZZAR The Vision of Belshazzar is based upon Daniel v. III The monarch saw, and shook, IV Chaldea's seers are good, But here they have no skill; And the unknown letters stood Untold and awful still. And Babel's men of age Are wise and deep in lore; But now they were not sage, They saw but knew no more. V A captive in the land, A stranger and a youth, The prophecy in view; He read it on that night, The morrow proved it true. VI "Belshazzar's grave is made, His kingdom passed away, He, in the balance weighed, The Persian on his throne !" THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB See 2 Kings xviii and xix for the historical incident. THE I Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. II Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, III For the angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, IV And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, V And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail: the trumpet unblown. VI And the widows of Ashur1 are loud in their wail, STANZAS FOR MUSIC THERE'S NOT A JOY THE WORLD CAN GIVE O Lachrymarum fons, tenero sacros - GRAY'S Poemata These stanzas were written on hearing of the death of the Duke of Dorset, who was killed by a fall from his horse while hunting, in March, 1815. Dorset had been among Byron's warmest friends at Harrow. "Do you remember the lines I sent you early last year? . I mean those beginning, 'There's not a joy the world can give,' etc., on which I pique myself as being the truest, though the most melancholy, I ever wrote." — Byron's letter to Moore, March, 1816 THE I HERE'S not a joy the world can give like that it takes away, When the glow of early thought declines in Feeling's dull decay; 'Tis not on Youth's smooth cheek the blush alone, which fades so fast, But the tender bloom of heart is gone, ere Youth itself be past. 1 Ashur: the highest god of the Assyrians; but the word here stands for the country of Assyria itself. |