Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/97

CANTO I.] Nurst in the glowing lap of soft Desire:

Ah! that to these were given such peaceful shades

As Greece can still bestow, though Glory fly her glades.

LXV.

Fair is proud Seville; let her country boast

Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days;N14

But Cadiz, rising on the distant coast,

Calls forth a sweeter, though ignoble praise.

Ah, Vice! how soft are thy voluptuous ways!

While boyish blood is mantling, who can 'scape

The fascination of thy magic gaze?

A Cherub-Hydra round us dost thou gape,

And mould to every taste thy dear delusive shape.

LXVI.

When Paphos fell by Time—accurséd Time!

The Queen who conquers all must yield to thee—

The Pleasures fled, but sought as warm a clime;

And Venus, constant to her native Sea,

To nought else constant, hither deigned to flee,

And fixed her shrine within these walls of white: