Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/256

222 X.

Secure in guarded coldness, he had mixed

Again in fancied safety with his kind,

And deemed his spirit now so firmly fixed

And sheathed with an invulnerable mind,

That, if no joy, no sorrow lurked behind;

And he, as one, might 'midst the many stand

Unheeded, searching through the crowd to find

Fit speculation—such as in strange land

He found in wonder-works of God and Nature's hand.

XI.

But who can view the ripened rose, nor seek

To wear it? who can curiously behold

The smoothness and the sheen of Beauty's cheek,

Nor feel the heart can never all grow old?

Who can contemplate Fame through clouds unfold

The star which rises o'er her steep, nor climb?