Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/447

Rh Still to the "midst of things" he hastens on,

As if we witnessed all already done;

Leaves on his path whatever seems too mean

To raise the subject, or adorn the scene;

Gives, as each page improves upon the sight,

Not smoke from brightness, but from darkness—light;

And truth and fiction with such art compounds,

We know not where to fix their several bounds.

If you would please the Public, deign to hear

What soothes the many-headed monster's ear:

If your heart triumph when the hands of all

Applaud in thunder at the curtain's fall,

Deserve those plaudits—study Nature's page,

And sketch the striking traits of every age;

While varying Man and varying years unfold

Life's little tale, so oft, so vainly told;

Observe his simple childhood's dawning days,

His pranks, his prate, his playmates, and his plays:

Till time at length the mannish tyro weans,

And prurient vice outstrips his tardy teens!

Behold him Freshman! forced no more to groan

O'er Virgil's devilish verses and his own;