Don Juan 05-156 ~ 159
 
Don Juan 05-156
Canto the Fifth
 
     CLVI

This compliment, which drew all eyes upon
     The new-bought virgin, made her blush and shake.
Her comrades, also, thought themselves undone:
     Oh! Mahomet! that his majesty should take
Such notice of a giaour, while scarce to one
     Of them his lips imperial ever spake!
There was a general whisper, toss, and wriggle,
But etiquette forbade them all to giggle.
 
 
Don Juan 05-157
Canto the Fifth
 
     CLVII

The Turks do well to shut -- at least, sometimes --
     The women up, because, in sad reality,
Their chastity in these unhappy climes
     Is not a thing of that astringent quality
Which in the North prevents precocious crimes,
     And makes our snow less pure than our morality;
The sun, which yearly melts the polar ice,
Has quite the contrary effect on vice.
 
 
Don Juan 05-158
Canto the Fifth
 
     CLVIII

Thus in the East they are extremely strict,
     And Wedlock and a Padlock mean the same;
Excepting only when the former's pick'd
     It ne'er can be replaced in proper frame;
Spoilt, as a pipe of claret is when prick'd:
     But then their own Polygamy's to blame;
Why don't they knead two virtuous souls for life
Into that moral centaur, man and wife?
 
 
Don Juan 05-159
Canto the Fifth
 
     CLIX

Thus far our chronicle; and now we pause,
     Though not for want of matter; but 't is time
According to the ancient epic laws,
     To slacken sail, and anchor with our rhyme.
Let this fifth canto meet with due applause,
     The sixth shall have a touch of the sublime;
Meanwhile, as Homer sometimes sleeps, perhaps
You'll pardon to my muse a few short naps.
 
George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
ByronLong