Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/192

152 To watch the movements of the Daunian host,

With him Euryalus sustains the post;

No lovelier mien adorn'd the ranks of Troy,

And beardless bloom yet grac'd the gallant boy;

Though few the seasons of his youthful life,

As yet a novice in the martial strife,

'Twas his, with beauty, Valour's gifts to share—

A soul heroic, as his form was fair:

These burn with one pure flame of generous love;

In peace, in war, united still they move;

Friendship and Glory form their joint reward;

And, now, combin'd they hold their nightly guard.

"What God," exclaim'd the first, "instils this fire?

Or, in itself a God, what great desire?

My lab'ring soul, with anxious thought oppress'd,

Abhors this station of inglorious rest;

The love of fame with this can ill accord,

Be't mine to seek for glory with my sword.

See'st thou yon camp, with torches twinkling dim,

Where drunken slumbers wrap each lazy limb?

Where confidence and ease the watch disdain,

And drowsy Silence holds her sable reign?

Then hear my thought;—In deep and sullen grief

Our troops and leaders mourn their absent chief: