Don Juan 06-061 ~ 065
 
 
Don Juan 06-061
Canto the Sixth
 
     LXI
 
And one by one her articles of dress
     Were laid aside; but not before she offer'd
Her aid to fair Juanna, whose excess
     Of modesty declined the assistance proffer'd:
Which pass'd well off -- as she could do no less;
     Though by this politesse she rather suffer'd,
Pricking her fingers with those cursed pins,
Which surely were invented for our sins, --
 
 
Don Juan 06-062
Canto the Sixth
 
     LXII
 
Making a woman like a porcupine,
     Not to be rashly touch'd. But still more dread,
Oh ye! whose fate it is, as once 't was mine,
     In early youth, to turn a lady's maid; --
I did my very boyish best to shine
     In tricking her out for a masquerade;
The pins were placed sufficiently, but not
Stuck all exactly in the proper spot.
 
 
Don Juan 06-063
Canto the Sixth
 
     LXIII
 
But these are foolish things to all the wise,
     And I love wisdom more than she loves me;
My tendency is to philosophise
     On most things, from a tyrant to a tree;
But still the spouseless virgin Knowledge flies.
     What are we? and whence came we? what shall be
Our ultimate existence? what's our present?
Are questions answerless, and yet incessant.
 
 
Don Juan 06-064
Canto the Sixth
 
     LXIV
 
There was deep silence in the chamber: dim
     And distant from each other burn'd the lights,
And slumber hover'd o'er each lovely limb
     Of the fair occupants: if there be sprites,
They should have walk'd there in their sprightliest trim,
     By way of change from their sepulchral sites,
And shown themselves as ghosts of better taste
Than haunting some old ruin or wild waste.
 
 
Don Juan 06-065
Canto the Sixth
 
     LXV
 
Many and beautiful lay those around,
     Like flowers of different hue, and dime, and root,
In some exotic garden sometimes found,
     With cost, and care, and warmth induced to shoot.
One with her auburn tresses lightly bound,
     And fair brows gently drooping, as the fruit
Nods from the tree, was slumbering with soft breath,
And lips apart, which show'd the pearls beneath.
      
George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
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