Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 5.djvu/639

CANTO II.] The wood-dove from the forest depth shall coo,

Like voices of the Gods from Bolotoo;

We'll cull the flowers that grow above the dead,

For these most bloom where rests the warrior's head;

And we will sit in Twilight's face, and see

The sweet Moon glancing through the Tooa tree,

The lofty accents of whose sighing bough

Shall sadly please us as we lean below;

Or climb the steep, and view the surf in vain

Wrestle with rocky giants o'er the main,

Which spurn in columns back the baffled spray.

How beautiful are these! how happy they,

Who, from the toil and tumult of their lives,

Steal to look down where nought but Ocean strives!

Even He too loves at times the blue lagoon,

And smooths his ruffled mane beneath the Moon.

II.

Yes—from the sepulchre we'll gather flowers,

Then feast like spirits in their promised bowers,

Then plunge and revel in the rolling surf,

Then lay our limbs along the tender turf,

And, wet and shining from the sportive toil,