Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 6.djvu/640

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I.

world is full of orphans: firstly, those

Who are so in the strict sense of the phrase;

But many a lonely tree the loftier grows

Than others crowded in the Forest's maze—

The next are such as are not doomed to lose

Their tender parents, in their budding days,

But, merely, their parental tenderness,

Which leaves them orphans of the heart no less.

II.

The next are "only Children," as they are styled,

Who grow up Children only, since th' old saw

Pronounces that an "only's" a spoilt child—

But not to go too far, I hold it law,

That where their education, harsh or mild,

Transgresses the great bounds of love or awe,