Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/483

CANTO IV.] While in those warm and lovely veins the fire

Of health and holy feeling can provide

Great Nature's Nile, whose deep stream rises higher

Than Egypt's river:—from that gentle side

Drink—drink, and live—Old Man! Heaven's realm holds no such tide.

CLI.

The starry fable of the Milky Way

Has not thy story's purity; it is

A constellation of a sweeter ray,

And sacred Nature triumphs more in this

Reverse of her decree, than in the abyss

Where sparkle distant worlds:—Oh, holiest Nurse!

No drop of that clear stream its way shall miss

To thy Sire's heart, replenishing its source

With life, as our freed souls rejoin the Universe.

CLII.

Turn to the Mole which Hadrian reared on high,

Imperial mimic of old Egypt's piles,