Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/153

CANTO II.] But checked by every tie, I may not dare

To cast a worthless offering at thy shrine,

Nor ask so dear a breast to feel one pang for mine.

XXXI.

Thus Harold deemed, as on that Lady's eye

He looked, and met its beam without a thought,

Save Admiration glancing harmless by:

Love kept aloof, albeit not far remote,

Who knew his Votary often lost and caught,

But knew him as his Worshipper no more,

And ne'er again the Boy his bosom sought:

Since now he vainly urged him to adore,

Well deemed the little God his ancient sway was o'er.

XXXII.

Fair Florence found, in sooth with some amaze,

One who, 'twas said, still sighed to all he saw,

Withstand, unmoved, the lustre of her gaze,

Which others hailed with real or mimic awe,

Their hope, their doom, their punishment, their law;

All that gay Beauty from her bondsmen claims: