Poetry Catalog

Oh ye! who teach the ingenuous youth of nations,Holland, France, England, Germany, or Spain,I pray ye flog them upon all occasions—It mends their morals, never mind the pain:The best of mothers and of educationsIn Juan's case were but employed in vain,Since, in a way that's rather of the oddest, heBecame divested of his native modesty. Had he but been placed at a public … [Read more...] about Don Juan: Canto the Second, By: Lord Byron

I want a hero: an uncommon want,When every year and month sends forth a new one,Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,The age discovers he is not the true one;Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan—We all have seen him, in the pantomime,Sent to the Devil somewhat ere his time. Vernon, the butcher Cumberland, Wolfe, … [Read more...] about Don Juan: Canto the First, By: Lord Byron

White as a white sail on a dusky sea,When half the horizon's clouded and half free,Fluttering between the dun wave and the sky,Is Hope's last gleam in Man's extremity.Her anchor parts; but still her snowy sailAttracts our eye amidst the rudest gale:Though every wave she climbs divides us more,The heart still follows from the loneliest shore. Not distant from the isle of … [Read more...] about The Island: Canto the Fourth, By: Lord Byron

How pleasant were the songs of Toobonai,When Summer's Sun went down the coral bay!Come, let us to the islet's softest shade,And hear the warbling birds! the damsels said:The wood-dove from the forest depth shall coo,Like voices of the Gods from Bolotoo;We'll cull the flowers that grow above the dead,For these most bloom where rests the warrior's head;And we will sit in … [Read more...] about The Island: Canto the Second, By: Lord Byron

The "good old times"—all times when old are good—Are gone; the present might be if they would;Great things have been, and are, and greater stillWant little of mere mortals but their will:A wider space, a greener field, is givenTo those who play their "tricks before high heaven."I know not if the angels weep, but menHave wept enough—for what?—to weep again! All is exploded—be … [Read more...] about The Age of Bronze, By: Lord Byron