Don Juan 07-81 ~ 85
  

Don Juan 07-81
Canto the Seventh
 
     LXXXI

If not in poetry, at least in fact;
     And fact is truth, the grand desideratum!
Of which, howe'er the Muse describes each act,
     There should be ne'ertheless a slight substratum.
But now the town is going to be attack'd;
     Great deeds are doing -- how shall I relate 'em?
Souls of immortal generals! Phoebus watches
To colour up his rays from your despatches.


Don Juan 07-82
Canto the Seventh
 
     LXXXII

Oh, ye great bulletins of Bonaparte!
     Oh, ye less grand long lists of kill'd and wounded!
Shade of Leonidas, who fought so hearty,
     When my poor Greece was once, as now, surrounded!
Oh, Caesar's Commentaries! now impart, ye
     Shadows of glory! (lest I be confounded)
A portion of your fading twilight hues,
So beautiful, so fleeting, to the Muse.


Don Juan 07-83
Canto the Seventh
 
     LXXXIII

When I call "fading" martial immortality,
     I mean, that every age and every year,
And almost every day, in sad reality,
     Some sucking hero is compell'd to rear,
Who, when we come to sum up the totality
     Of deeds to human happiness most dear,
Turns out to be a butcher in great business,
Afflicting young folks with a sort of dizziness.


Don Juan 07-84
Canto the Seventh
 
     LXXXIV

Medals, rank, ribands, lace, embroidery, scarlet,
     Are things immortal to immortal man,
As purple to the Babylonian harlot:
     An uniform to boys is like a fan
To women; there is scarce a crimson varlet
     But deems himself the first in Glory's van.
But Glory's glory; and if you would find
What that is -- ask the pig who sees the wind!


Don Juan 07-85
Canto the Seventh
 
     LXXXV

At least he feels it, and some say he sees,
     Because he runs before it like a pig;
Or, if that simple sentence should displease,
     Say, that he scuds before it like a brig,
A schooner, or -- but it is time to ease
     This Canto, ere my Muse perceives fatigue.
The next shall ring a peal to shake all people,
Like a bob-major from a village steeple.


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