Don Juan 08-056 ~ 060


Don Juan 08-056
Canto the Eighth
 
     LVI
The General Lascy, who had been hard press'd,
    Seeing arrive an aid so opportune
As were some hundred youngsters all abreast,
    Who came as if just dropp'd down from the moon,
To Juan, who was nearest him, address'd
    His thanks, and hopes to take the city soon,
Not reckoning him to be a "base Bezonian"
(As Pistol calls it), but a young Livonian.

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Don Juan 08-057
Canto the Eighth
 
     LVII
Juan, to whom he spoke in German, knew
    As much of German as of Sanscrit, and
In answer made an inclination to
    The general who held him in command;
For seeing one with ribands, black and blue,
    Stars, medals, and a bloody sword in hand,
Addressing him in tones which seem'd to thank,
He recognised an officer of rank.

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Don Juan 08-058
Canto the Eighth
 
     LVIII
Short speeches pass between two men who speak
    No common language; and besides, in time
Of war and taking towns, when many a shriek
    Rings o'er the dialogue, and many a crime
Is perpetrated ere a word can break
    Upon the ear, and sounds of horror chime
In like church-bells, with sigh, howl, groan, yell, prayer,
There cannot be much conversation there.

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Don Juan 08-059
Canto the Eighth
 
     LIX
And therefore all we have related in
    Two long octaves, pass'd in a little minute;
But in the same small minute, every sin
    Contrived to get itself comprised within it.
The very cannon, deafen'd by the din,
    Grew dumb, for you might almost hear a linnet,
As soon as thunder, 'midst the general noise
Of human nature's agonising voice!

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Don Juan 08-060
Canto the Eighth
 
     LX
The town was enter'd. Oh eternity! --
    "God made the country and man made the town,"
So Cowper says -- and I begin to be
    Of his opinion, when I see cast down
Rome, Babylon, Tyre, Carthage, Nineveh,
    All walls men know, and many never known;
And pondering on the present and the past,
To deem the woods shall be our home at last

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