Where men may read their destinies ! What! still unmoved, thou Sleeper! still Thy forehead set- Thy proud lip curb'd- Awake thee, Byron! Thou art call'd, The thraldom of the nations-wake! Arise! The heathen are upon thee! Lo, they come Silent as death, Like them of old, that crept On the shorn Samson, while he slept, In their barbarian power afraid Of one-a woman had betray'd! Or, like the pirate-band that stole An armed multitude, to take Awake, anointed one, awake! Is full of lamentation-all the air With sweet, remote, Low sounds, afloat And solemn trumpeting and prayer. And lo! The waters of the mountain lake Tremble and shake And change their hue As if they felt a spirit go O'er their transparent solitude: The great hills darken-all the valleys quake With one continual throe, The green earth is wet With a fragrant sweat, Like the fine small dew, That filters through Rich moss, by the foot subdued; Their blossoms throw On the motionless air, Like a shower of snow, Trembling as if they felt the tread And see! another band appear, Three hundred Spartan shadows they, A lustre on the troubled air: The marble Sleeper, where he lies Behold them slowly trace, With sorrow in each noble face, Thou sleeping warrior-Bard! O break The Spartans are about thee- They claim thee for the last To whom the battle and the chase, The thunder and the fight, Awake! and fall Like the bright thunder on their foes! On with thy helmet! set thy foot Strike down the infidel, and put Thy mailed hand upon thy slumbering heart, And sounding to the mountain air, Go up, thou Sleeper! go with loosen'd hair; Go up into the cloud, and then forbear To join the awful interlude, The wild and solemn harmony Of that afflicted solitude, Bard of the Ocean, if thou canst, in one eternal prayer! What! Still changing not, Or noise of coming strife, Or thunder near thee roll'd: The nations that have known thee long Where thou art lying; The Spartan wise-the Spartan strong, By some great multitude- Immoveable as if thy blood were turn'd to stone! Man of the solid brow; O what! To alter not, Nor change, nor stir thyself, nor wake, The cold extinguished ground, Up from thy charmed slumber! break Ye of the snowy brow, The beautiful and tender! Ye shadows of his child and wife, Now heaven be thanked! he lies Children of Greece, rejoice! No change nor trouble shall come again To the island-bard of the deep blue main; Nor blight nor blast To overcast The brightness of his name; All ye that have loved the man, rejoice, He cannot, now, And you, ye men of Greece, A flame That will burn eternally And sound that will never cease! O peace! For his beautiful eyes, Under Grecian skies, Were shut by the hands of Grecian men And the voice of his heart Will never depart Away from the land of the brave again: |