Don Juan 06-071 ~ 075
 
 
Don Juan 06-071
Canto the Sixth
 
     LXXI
 
And that so loudly, that upstarted all
     The Oda, in a general commotion:
Matron and maids, and those whom you may call
     Neither, came crowding like the waves of ocean,
One on the other, throughout the whole hall,
     All trembling, wondering, without the least notion
More than I have myself of what could make
The calm Dudu so turbulently wake.
 
 
Don Juan 06-072
Canto the Sixth
 
     LXXII
 
But wide awake she was, and round her bed,
     With floating draperies and with flying hair,
With eager eyes, and light but hurried tread,
     And bosoms, arms, and ankles glancing bare,
And bright as any meteor ever bred
     By the North Pole, -- they sought her cause of care,
For she seem'd agitated, flush'd, and frighten'd,
Her eye dilated and her colour heighten'd.
 
 
Don Juan 06-073
Canto the Sixth
 
     LXXIII
 
But what was strange -- and a strong proof how great
     A blessing is sound sleep -- Juanna lay
As fast as ever husband by his mate
     In holy matrimony snores away.
Not all the clamour broke her happy state
     Of slumber, ere they shook her, -- so they say
At least, -- and then she, too, unclosed her eyes,
And yawn'd a good deal with discreet surprise.
 
 
Don Juan 06-074
Canto the Sixth
 
     LXXIV
 
And now commenced a strict investigation,
     Which, as all spoke at once and more than once,
Conjecturing, wondering, asking a narration,
     Alike might puzzle either wit or dunce
To answer in a very clear oration.
     Dudu had never pass'd for wanting sense,
But, being "no orator as Brutus is,"
Could not at first expound what was amiss.
 
 
Don Juan 06-075
Canto the Sixth
 
     LXXV
 
At length she said, that in a slumber sound
     She dream'd a dream, of walking in a wood --
A "wood obscure," like that where Dante found
     Himself in at the age when all grow good;
Life's half-way house, where dames with virtue crown'd
     Run much less risk of lovers turning rude;
And that this wood was full of pleasant fruits,
And trees of goodly growth and spreading roots;
     
George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
ByronLong