Don Juan 03-036
Canto the Third

     XXXVI
Ah! what is man- what perils still environ
     The happiest mortals even after dinner-
A day of gold from out an age of iron
     Is all that life allows the luckiest sinner;
Pleasure (whene'er she sings, at least)'s a siren,
     That lures, to flay alive, the young beginner;
Lambro's reception at his people's banquet
Was such as fire accords to a wet blanket.

George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) 
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