Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/372

334 A country with—aye, or without mankind;

Yet was I born where men are proud to be,—

Not without cause; and should I leave behind

The inviolate Island of the sage and free,

And seek me out a home by a remoter sea,

IX.

Perhaps I loved it well; and should I lay

My ashes in a soil which is not mine,

My Spirit shall resume it—if we may

Unbodied choose a sanctuary. I twine

My hopes of being remembered in my line

With my land's language: if too fond and far

These aspirations in their scope incline,—

If my Fame should be, as my fortunes are,

Of hasty growth and blight, and dull Oblivion bar