Don Juan 07-26 ~ 30
  
Don Juan 07-26
Canto the Seventh
 
     XXVI

The Russian batteries were incomplete,
     Because they were constructed in a hurry;
Thus the same cause which makes a verse want feet,
     And throws a cloud o'er Longman and John Murray,
When the sale of new books is not so fleet
     As they who print them think is necessary,
May likewise put off for a time what story
Sometimes calls "Murder," and at others "Glory."


Don Juan 07-27
Canto the Seventh
 
     XXVII

Whether it was their engineer's stupidity,
     Their haste, or waste, I neither know nor care,
Or some contractor's personal cupidity,
     Saving his soul by cheating in the ware
Of homicide, but there was no solidity
     In the new batteries erected there;
They either miss'd, or they were never miss'd,
And added greatly to the missing list.


Don Juan 07-28
Canto the Seventh
 
     XXVIII

A sad miscalculation about distance
     Made all their naval matters incorrect;
Three fireships lost their amiable existence
     Before they reach'd a spot to take effect:
The match was lit too soon, and no assistance
     Could remedy this lubberly defect;
They blew up in the middle of the river,
While, though 't was dawn, the Turks slept fast as ever.


Don Juan 07-29
Canto the Seventh
 
     XXIX

At seven they rose, however, and survey'd
     The Russ flotilla getting under way;
'T was nine, when still advancing undismay'd,
     Within a cable's length their vessels lay
Off Ismail, and commenced a cannonade,
     Which was return'd with interest, I may say,
And by a fire of musketry and grape,
And shells and shot of every size and shape.


Don Juan 07-30
Canto the Seventh
 
     XXX

For six hours bore they without intermission
     The Turkish fire, and aided by their own
Land batteries, work'd their guns with great precision:
     At length they found mere cannonade alone
By no means would produce the town's submission,
     And made a signal to retreat at one.
One bark blew up, a second near the works
Running aground, was taken by the Turks.
 
 
George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) 
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