LB-Lara 01-20
CANTO THE FIRST.

XX.

There is a festival, where knights and dames,
And aught that wealth or lofty lineage claims,
Appear - a high-born and a welcomed guest
To Otho's hall came Lara with the rest.
The long carousal shakes the illumined hall,
Well speeds alike the banquet and the ball;
And the gay dance of bounding Beauty's train
Links grace and harmony in happiest chain:
Blest are the early hearts and gentle hands
That mingle there in well according bands;
It is a sight the careful brow might smooth,
And make Age smile, and dream itself to youth,
And Youth forget such hour was pass'd on earth,
So springs the exulting bosom to that mirth!

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