Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/504

460 Again the Ægean, heard no more afar,

Lulls his chafed breast from elemental war:

Again his waves in milder tints unfold

Their long expanse of sapphire and of gold,

Mixed with the shades of many a distant isle

That frown, where gentler Ocean deigns to smile.

As thus, within the walls of Pallas' fane,

I marked the beauties of the land and main,

Alone, and friendless, on the magic shore,

Whose arts and arms but live in poets' lore;

Oft as the matchless dome I turned to scan,

Sacred to Gods, but not secure from Man,

The Past returned, the Present seemed to cease,

And Glory knew no clime beyond her Greece!

Hour rolled along, and Dian's orb on high

Had gained the centre of her softest sky;

And yet unwearied still my footsteps trod

O'er the vain shrine of many a vanished God:

But chiefly, Pallas! thine, when Hecate's glare

Checked by thy columns, fell more sadly fair

O'er the chill marble, where the startling tread

Thrills the lone heart like echoes from the dead.