Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/743

 LORD BYRON

But Turkish force and Latin fraud Would break your shield, however broad.

Fill high the bowl with Samian wine' Our virgins dance beneath the shade

I see their glorious black eyes shine, But gazing on each glowing maid,

My own the burning tear-drop laves,

To think such breasts must suckle slaves.

Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, Where nothing, save the waves and I,

May hear our mutual murmurs sweep, There, swan-like, let me sing and die:

A land of slaves shall ne'er be mine

Dash down yon cup of Samian wmc'

SIR AUBREY DE VERE 609 The Children Band

AJL holy influences dwell within The breast of Childhood instincts fresh from God

Inspire it, ere the heart beneath the rod Of grief hath bled, or caught the plague of sin. How mighty was that fervour which could win

Its way to infant souls' and was the sod

Of Palestine by infant Croises trod^ Like Joseph went they forth, or Benjamin, In all their touching beauty to redeem?

And did their soft lips kiss the Sepulchre^ Alas' the lovely pageant as a dream

Faded' They sank not through ignoble fear; They felt not Moslem steel. By mountain, stream,

In sands, in fens, they died no mother near'

�� �