Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/373

Rh Yet say! why should the Bard, at once, resign

His claim to favour from the sacred Nine?

For ever startled by the mingled howl

Of Northern Wolves, that still in darkness prowl;

A coward Brood, which mangle as they prey,

By hellish instinct, all that cross their way;

Agéd or young, the living or the dead,

No mercy find—these harpies must be fed.

Why do the injured unresisting yield

The calm possession of their native field?

Why tamely thus before their fangs retreat,

Nor hunt the blood-hounds back to Arthur's Seat?