Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/534

490 Brunck's heaviest tome for ballast, and, to back it,

Of Heynè, such as should not sink the packet.

Fraught with this cargo—and her fairest freight,

Delightful Waltz, on tiptoe for a Mate,

The welcome vessel reached the genial strand,

And round her flocked the daughters of the land.

Not decent David, when, before the ark,

His grand Pas-seul excited some remark;

Not love-lorn Quixote, when his Sancho thought

The knight's Fandango friskier than it ought;

Not soft Herodias, when, with winning tread,

Her nimble feet danced off another's head;

Not Cleopatra on her Galley's Deck,

Displayed so much of leg or more of neck,

Than Thou, ambrosial Waltz, when first the Moon

Beheld thee twirling to a Saxon tune!

To You, ye husbands of ten years! whose brows

Ache with the annual tributes of a spouse;

To you of nine years less, who only bear