Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 3.djvu/301

CANTO II.] What lost a world, and bade a hero fly?

The timid tear in Cleopatra's eye.

Yet be the soft Triumvir's fault forgiven;

By this—how many lose not earth—but Heaven!

Consign their souls to Man's eternal foe,

And seal their own to spare some Wanton's woe!

XVI.

'Tis Morn—and o'er his altered features play

The beams—without the Hope of yesterday.

What shall he be ere night? perchance a thing

O'er which the raven flaps her funeral wing,

By his closed eye unheeded and unfelt;

While sets that Sun, and dews of Evening melt,

Chill, wet, and misty round each stiffened limb,

Refreshing earth—reviving all but him!