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Say-would you make those beauties quite so, Or give-like her-caresses to a score ;

cheap?

Hot from the hands promiscuously applied, Round the slight waist, or down the flowing side,

Where were the rapture then to clasp the form
From this lewd grasp and lawless contact warm?
At once love's most endearing thought resign,
To press the hand so press'd by none but thine;
To gaze upon that eye which never met
Another's ardent look without regret ;
Approach the lip which all, without restraint,
Come near enough- if not to touch-to taint;
If such thou lovest-love her then no more,

Her mind with these is gone, and with it go The little left behind it to bestow.

Voluptuous Waltz! and dare I thus blaspheme? Thy bard forgot thy praises were his theme. Terpsichore, forgive ! --at every ball My wife now waltzes-and my daughters shall; My son-(or stop-'tis needless to inquireThese little accidents should ne'er transpire; Some ages hence our genealogic tree

Will wear as green a bough for him as me)Waltzing shall rear, to make our name amends, Grandsons for me-in heirs to all his friends.

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"One fatal remembrance-one sorrow that throws
Its bleak shade alike o'er our joys and our woes-
To which Life nothing darker nor brighter can bring,

For which joy hath no balm-and affliction no sting."-MOORE.

TO SAMUEL ROGERS, Esq.,

A SLIGHT BUT MOST SINCERE TOKEN OF ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS,
RESPECT FOR HIS CHARACTER,

AND GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP,

THIS PRODUCTION IS INSCRIBED

BY HIS OBLIGED AND AFFECTIONATE SERVANT,

LONDON, May 1813.

ADVERTISEMENT.

BYRON.

THE tale which these disjointed fragments present, is founded upon circumstances now less common in the East than formerly; either because the ladies are more circumspect than in the "olden time," or because the Christians have better fortune, or less enterprise. The story, when entire, contained the adventures of a female slave, who was thrown, in the Mussulnian manner, into the sea for infidelity, and avenged by a young Venetian, her lover, at the time the Seven Islands were possessed by the Republic of Venice, and soon after the Arnauts were beaten back from the Morea, which they had ravaged for some time subsequent to the Russian invasion. The desertion of the Mainotes, on being refused the plunder of Misitra, led to the abandonment of that enterprise, and to the desolation of the Morea, during which the cruelty exercised on all sides was unparalleled even in the annals of the faithful.

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*Giaour-an Infidel. The g is sounded soft, as before e in English.

A tomb above the rocks on the promontory,

Reflects the tints of many a peak
Caught by the laughing tides that lave
These Edens of the Eastern wave;
And if at times a transient breeze
Break the blue crystal of the seas,
Or sweep one blossom from the trees,
How welcome is each gentle air
That wakes and wafts the odours there!
For there the Rose o'er crag or vale,
Sultana of the Nightingale,*

The maid for whom his melody,-
His thousand songs are heard on high,
Blooms blushing to her lover's tale:
His queen, the garden queen,
Unbent by winds, unchill'd by snows,
Far from the winters of the West,

his Rose,

*The attachment of the nightingale to the

by some supposed the sepulchre of Themistocles, rose is a well-known Persian fable.

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By every breeze and season blest,
Returns the sweets by nature given
In softest incense back to heaven;
And grateful yields that smiling sky
Her fairest hue and fragrant sigh.
And many a summer flower is there,
And many a shade that love might share,
And many a grotto meant for rest,
That holds the pirate for a guest;
Whose bark in sheltering cove below
Lurks for the passing peaceful prow,
Till the gay mariner's guitar

Is heard, and seen the evening star;
Then stealing with the muffled oar,
Far shaded by the rocky shore,
Rush the night-prowlers on the prey,
And turn to groan his roundelay.
Strange- that where nature loved to trace,
As if for gods a dwelling-place,

And every grace and charm hath mix'd
Within the paradise she fix'd-
There man, enamour'd of distress,
Should mar it into wilderness,

And trample, brute-like, o'er each flower
That tasks not one laborious hour;
Nor claims the culture of his hand
To bloom along the fairy land,
But springs as to preclude his care,
And sweetly woos him-but to spare.
Strange-that where all is peace beside,
There passion riots in her pride,
And lust and rapine wildly reign,
To darken o'er the fair domain.
It is as though the fiends prevail'd
Against the seraphs they assail'd,

And, fix'd on heavenly thrones, should dwell
The freed inheritors of hell;

So soft the scene, so form'd for joy,
So curst the tyrants that destroy!

He who hath bent him o'er the dead
Ere the first day of death is fled,
The first dark day of nothingness,
The last of danger and distress
(Before Decay's effacing fingers

Have swept the lines where beauty lingers),
And mark'd the mild angelic air-
The rapture of repose that's there-
The fix'd yet tender traits that streak
The languor of the placid cheek,
And-but for that sad shrouded eye,

That fires not, wins not, weeps not now-
And but for that chill, changeless brow,
Where cold Obstruction's apathy
Appals the gazing mourner's heart,
As if to him it could impart
The doom he dreads, yet dwells upon-
Yes, but for these and these alone,

Some moments, ay, one treacherous hour,
He still might doubt the tyrant's power,
So fair, so calm, so softly seal'd,
The first, last look by death reveal'd!
Such is the aspect of this shore-
'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more!
So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
We start-for soul is wanting there.
Hers is the loveliness in death,
That parts not quite with parting breath;
But beauty with that fearful bloom,
That hue which haunts it to the tomb-
Expression's last receding ray,

A gilded halo hovering round decay, The farewell beam of Feeling pass'd away! Spark of that flame-perchance of heavenly birth

Which gleams, but warms no

Clime of the unforgotten brave!
Whose land from plain to mountain-cave
Was Freedom's home, or Glory's grave-
Shrine of the mighty! can it be

That this is all remains of thee?
Approach, thou craven crouching slave:
Say, is not this Thermopyla?
These waters blue that round you lave,
O servile offspring of the free-
Pronounce what sea, what shore is this?
The gulf, the rock of Salamis !
These scenes, their story not unknown,
Arise, and make again your own;
Snatch from the ashes of your sires
The embers of their former fires;
And he who in the strife expires
Will add to theirs a name of fear,
That Tyranny shall quake to hear,
And leave his sons a hope, a fame,
They too will rather die than shame:
For Freedom's battle once begun,
Bequeathed by bleeding Sire to Son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won.
Bear witness, Greece, thy living page!
Attest it many a deathless age!
While kings, in dusty darkness hid,
Have left a nameless pyramid,

Thy heroes-though the general doom
Hath swept the column from their tomb,
A mightier monument command,
The mountains of their native land 1.T
There points thy Muse to stranger's eye
The graves of those that cannot die!
'Twere long to tell, and sad to trace,
Each step from splendour to disgrace:
Enough-no foreign foe could quell
Thy soul, till from itself it fell,

Yes! Self-abasement paved the way a
To villain-bonds and despot sway.
What can he tell who treads thy shore?

No legend of thine olden time, od
No theme on which the muse might soar,
High as thine own in days of yore,

When man was worthy of thy clime. The hearts within thy valleys bred, The fiery souls that might have led

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Athens is the property of the Kislar Aga (the slave of the seraglio and guardian of the women), who appoints the Waywode. A pander and eunuch-these are not polite, yet true. appellations now governs the governor of Athens.

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Who thundering comes on blackest steed, With slacken'd bit and hoof of speed? Beneath the clattering iron's sound The cavern'd echoes wake around In lash for lash and bound for bound; The foam that streaks the courser's side, Seems gather'd from the ocean-tide: Though weary waves are sunk to rest, There's none within his rider's breast; And though to-morrow's tempest lower, "Tis calmer than thy heart, young Giaour! I know thee not, I loathe thy race, But in thy lineaments I trace What time shall strengthen, not efface! Though young and pale, that sallow front Is scathed by fiery passion's brunt ; Though bent on earth thine evil eye, As meteor-like thou glidest by, Right well I view and deem thee one Whom Othman's sons should slay or shun.

On-on he hasten'd, and he drew My gaze of wonder as he flew : Though like a demon of the night He pass'd, and vanish'd from my sight; His aspect and his air impress'd A troubled memory on my breast, And long upon my startled ear, Rung his dark courser's hoofs of fear. He spurs his steed; he nears the steep, That, jutting, shadows o'er the deep; He winds around: he hurries by ; The rock relieves him from mine eye; For well I ween unwelcome he Whose glance is fix'd on those that flee; And not a star but shines too bright On him who takes such timeless flight, He wound along-but ere he pass'd One glance he snatch'd, as if his last, A moment check'd his wheeling steed, A moment breathed him from his speed, A moment on his stirrup stoodWhy looks he o'er the olive wood?-The crescent glimmers on the hill, The Mosque's high lamps are quivering

still;

Though too remote for sound to wake

*

In echoes of the far tophaike,*
The flashes of each joyous peal
Are seen to prove the Moslem's zeal.
To-night, set Rhamazani's sun;
To-night, the Bairam feast's begun :
To-night-but who and what art thou
Of foreign garb and fearful brow?
And what are these to thine or thee,
That thou shouldst either pause or flee?

He stood-some dread was on his face,
Soon Hatred settled in its place:
It rose not with the reddening flush
Of transient anger's darkening blush,
But pale as marble o'er the tomb,
Whose ghastly whiteness aids its gloom.
His brow was bent, his eye was glazed;
He raised his arm, and fiercely raised
And sternly shook his hand on high,
As doubting to return or fly;-
Impatient of his flight delay'd,
Here loud his raven charger neigh'd-
Down glanced that hand, and grasp'd his
blade-

That sound had burst his waking dream,
As Slumber starts at owlet's scream.
The spur hath lanced his courser's sides;
Away, away, for life he rides--
Swift as the hurl'd on high jerreed t
Springs to the touch his startled steed;
The rock is doubled, and the shore
Shakes with the clattering tramp no more;
The crag is won, no more is seen

His Christian crest and haughty mien.-
'Twas but an instant he restrain'd
That fiery barb so sternly rein'd;
'Twas but a moment that he stood,
Then sped as if by death pursued:
But in that instant o'er his soul
Winters of Memory seem'd to roll,
And gather in that drop of time
A life of pain, an age of crime.
O'er him who loves, or hates, or fears,
Such moment pours the grief of years:
What felt he then, at once opprest
By all that most distracts the breast?
That pause, which ponder'd o'er his fate,
Oh, who its dreary length shall date!
Though in Time's record nearly nought,
It was Eternity to Thought!

For infinite as boundless space

The thought that Conscience must embrace,
Which in itself can comprehend
Woe without name, or hope, or end.

The hour is past, the Giaour is gone;
And did he fly or fall alone?
Woe to that hour he came or went!
The curse of Hassan's sin was sent

To turn a palace to a tomb:

He came, he went, like the Simoom,
That Harbinger of fate and gloom,
Beneath whose widely-wasting breath

"Tophaike," musket. The Bairam is announced by the cannon at sunset; the illumination of the Mosques, and the firing of all kinds of small arms, loaded with ball, proclaim it during the night.

t Jerreed, or Djerrid, a blunted Turkish javelin, which is darted from horseback with great force and precision,

The very cypress droops to death-
Dark tree, still sad when others' grief is fled,
The only constant mourner o'er the dead!

The steed is vanish'd from the stall;
No serf is seen in Hassan's hall;
The lonely spider's thin grey pall
Waves slowly widening o'er the wall;
The bat builds in his Haram bower,
And in the fortress of his power
The owl usurps the beacon-tower;

The wild-dog howls o'er the fountain's brim,
With baffled thirst, and famine grim;

For the stream has shrunk from its marble bed

Where the weeds and the desolate dust are spread.

'Twas sweet of yore to see it play,

And chase the sultriness of day,

As springing high the silver dew

In whirls fantastically flew,

And flung luxurious coolness round
The air and verdure o'er the ground.
'Twas sweet, when cloudless stars were
bright,

To view the wave of watery light,
And hear its melody by night.
And oft had Hassan's childhood play'd
Around the verge of that cascade;
And oft upon his mother's breast
That sound had harmonized his rest;
And oft had Hassan's youth along
Its bank been soothed by beauty's song;
And softer seem'd each melting tone
Of music mingled with its own.-
But ne'er shall Hassan's Age repose
Along the bank at Twilight's close:
The stream that fill'd that font is fled-
The blood that warm'd his heart is shed!
And here no more shall human voice
Be heard to rage, regret, rejoice.
The last sad note that swell'd the gale
Was woman's wildest funeral wail:
That quench'd in silence, all is still,

But the lattice that flaps when the wind is

shrill;

Though raves the gust, and floods the rain,
No hand shall close its clasp again.
On desert sands 'twere joy to scan
The rudest steps of fellow-man,
So here the very voice of Grief
Might wake an Echo like relief-

At least 'twould say, "All are not gone;
There lingers Life, though but in one"-
For many a gilded chamber's there,
Which Solitude might well forbear;
Within that dome as yet Decay
Hath slowly work'd her cankering way—
But gloom is gather'd o'er the gate,
Nor there the Fakir's self will wait;
Nor there will wandering Dervise stay,
For bounty cheers not his delay;
Nor there will weary stranger halt
To bless the sacred "bread and salt."*
Alike must Wealth and Poverty
Pass heedless and unheeded by,

*To partake of food, to break bread and salt with your host, ensures the safety of the guest: even though an enemy, his person from that moment is sacred,

For Courtesy and Pity died

With Hassan on the mountain side.
His roof, that refuge unto men,
Is Desolation's hungry den.

The guest flies the hall, and the vassal from labour,

Since his turban was cleft by the Infidel's sabre !

I hear the sound of coming feet, But not a voice mine ear to greet; More near-each turban I can scan, And silver-sheathed ataghan ;* The foremost of the band is seen An Emir by his garb of green: + "Ho! who art thou?""This low salamţ Replies of Moslem faith I am." "The burthen ye so gently bear

Seems one that claims your utmost care,
And doubtless holds some precious freight,
My humble bark would gladly wait."
"Thou speakest sooth; thy skiff unmoor,
And waft us from the silent shore;
Nay, leave the sail still furl'd, and ply
The nearest oar that's scatter'd by,
And midway to those rocks where sleep
The channell'd waters dark and deep.
Rest from your task-so-bravely done,
Our course has been right swiftly run,
Yet 'tis the longest voyage, I trow
That one of—”

Sullen it plunged, and slowly sank,
The calm wave rippled to the bank;
I watch'd it as it sank: methought
Some motion from the current caught
Bestirr'd it more,-'twas but the beam
That chequer'd o'er the living stream:
I gazed, till vanishing from view,
Like lessening pebble it withdrew;
Still less and less, a speck of white
That gemm'd the tide, then mock'd the
sight;

And all its hidden secrets sleep,
Known but to Genii of the deep,
Which, trembling in their coral caves,
They dare not whisper to the waves.

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As rising on its purple wing
The insect queen of eastern spring, §
O'er the emerald meadows of Kashmeer
Invites the young pursuer near,
And leads him on from flower to flower,
A weary chase and wasted hour,
Then leaves him, as it soars on high,
With panting heart and tearful eye:
So beauty lures the full-grown child,
With hue as bright, and wing as wild
A chase of idle hopes and fears,
Begun in folly, closed in tears.
If won, to equal ills betray'd,

The ataghan, a long dagger worn with. pistols in the belt.

Green is the privileged colour of the Prophet's numerous pretended descendants.

"

"Salam aleikoum! aleikoum salam !""Peace be with you; be with you peace' the salutation reserved for the faithful.

§ The blue-winged butterfly of Kashmeer.

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