When vexing thoughts within me rise, When mourning o'er some stone I bend, Thou, Saviour, mark'st the tears I shed, And O! when I have safely past Grant. INSCRIPTION ON THE MONUMENT OF A NEWFOUNDLAND DOG When some proud son of man returns to earth, Not what he was, but what he should have been The first to welcome, foremost to defend, Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour, Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat, Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame. ON THE Byron. STAR OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR. From the French. I. Star of the brave! whose beam hath shed, Such glory o'er the quick and dead Thou radiant and adored deceit ! Which millions rushed in arms to greet→ Wild meteor of immortal birth! Why rise in Heaven to set on Earth? II. Souls of slain heroes formed thy rays; Eternity flashed through thy blaze; The music of thy martial sphere Was fame on high, and honour here; And thy light broke on human eyes, Like a volcano of the skies. III. Like lava rolled thy stream of blood, And swept down empires with its flood; Earth rocked beneath thee to her base, As thou didst lighten through all space; And the shorn Sun grew dim in air, And set while thou wert dwelling there. IV. Before thee rose, and with thee grew, A rainbow of the loveliest hue, Of three bright colours, each divine, For freedom's hand had blended them, Like tints in an immortal gem. One tint was of the sunbeam's dyes; The texture of a heavenly dream. VI. Star of the brave! thy ray is pale, VII. And freedom hallows with her tread The silent cities of the dead; For beautiful in death are they Who proudly fall in her array; For evermore with them or thee! Byron. |