Quotes from work

The Giaour

“I die — but first I have possessed,
And come what may, I have been blessed.”

“He who hath bent him o'er the dead
Ere the first day of death is fled,—
The first dark day of nothingness,
The last of danger and distress,
Before decay's effacing fingers
Have swept the lines where beauty lingers.”

“The cold in clime are cold in blood,
Their love can scarce deserve the name.”

“And lovelier things have mercy shown
To every failing but their own,
And every woe a tear can claim
Except an erring sister's shame.”

“The keenest pangs the wretched find
Are rapture to the dreary void,
The leafless desert of the mind,
The waste of feelings unemployed.”

“For freedom's battle, once begun,
Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won.”

“Shrine of the mighty! can it be
That this is all remains of thee?”

“She was a form of life and light
That seen, became a part of sight,
And rose, where'er I turn'd mine eye,
The morning-star of memory!
Yes, love indeed is light from heaven;
A spark of that immortal fire
With angels shared, by Alla given,
To lift from earth our low desire.”

“Such is the aspect of this shore;
'T is Greece, but living Greece no more!
So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
We start, for soul is wanting there.”