Don Juan 08-041 ~ 045


Don Juan 08-041
Canto the Eighth
 
     XLI

But Johnson only ran off, to return
    With many other warriors, as we said,
Unto that rather somewhat misty bourn,
    Which Hamlet tells us is a pass of dread.
To Jack howe'er this gave but slight concern:
    His soul (like galvanism upon the dead)
Acted upon the living as on wire,
And led them back into the heaviest fire.

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Don Juan 08-042
Canto the Eighth
 
     XLII

Egad! they found the second time what they
    The first time thought quite terrible enough
To fly from, malgre all which people say
    Of glory, and all that immortal stuff
Which fills a regiment (besides their pay,
    That daily shilling which makes warriors tough) --
They found on their return the self-same welcome,
Which made some think, and others know, a hell come.

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Don Juan 08-043
Canto the Eighth
 
     XLIII
They fell as thick as harvests beneath hail,
    Grass before scythes, or corn below the sickle,
Proving that trite old truth, that life's as frail
    As any other boon for which men stickle.
The Turkish batteries thrash'd them like a flail,
    Or a good boxer, into a sad pickle
Putting the very bravest, who were knock'd
Upon the head, before their guns were cock'd.

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Don Juan 08-044
Canto the Eighth
 
     XLIV
The Turks, behind the traverses and flanks
    Of the next bastion, fired away like devils,
And swept, as gales sweep foam away, whole ranks:
    However, Heaven knows how, the Fate who levels
Towns, nations, worlds, in her revolving pranks,
    So order'd it, amidst these sulphury revels,
That Johnson and some few who had not scamper'd,
Reach'd the interior "talus" of the rampart.

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Don Juan 08-045
Canto the Eighth
 
     XLV
First one or two, then five, six, and a dozen,
    Came mounting quickly up, for it was now
All neck or nothing, as, like pitch or rosin,
    Flame was shower'd forth above, as well 's below,
So that you scarce could say who best had chosen,
    The gentlemen that were the first to show
Their martial faces on the parapet,
Or those who thought it brave to wait as yet.

George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) 
ByronLong