History, with all her volumes vast, hath but one page
Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear,
Ages and realms are crowded in this span
CVIII.
There is the moral of all human tales;”
“Tis but the same rehearsal of the past,
First Freedom, and then Glory — when that fails,
Wealth, vice, corruption, — barbarism at last.
And History, with all her volumes vast,
Hath but one page, — ’tis better written here,
Where gorgeous Tyranny hath thus amass’d
All treasures, all delights, that eye or ear,
Heart, soul could seek, tongue ask — Away with words! draw near,CIX.
Admire, exult, despise, laugh, weep, — for here
There is such matter for all feeling: — Man!
Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear,
Ages and realms are crowded in this span,
This mountain, whose obliterated plan
The pyramid of empires pinnacled,
Of Glory’s gewgaws shining in the van
Till the sun’s rays with added flame were fill’d!
Where are its golden roofs? where those who dared to build?by Lord Byron
(January 22, 1788 – April 19, 1824)
from Canto the Fourth – Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
image – Meagan Fisher
June 30th, 2010 at 12:03 am
Divine, and so perennial. And the image, once again so poignantly depicting the words. This one is a keeper.
June 30th, 2010 at 1:25 am
West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd liked to quote this one. He died on June 28th, at the ripe old age of 92, having been in the Senate since 1958. I didn’t have time to write about him, but I didn’t want the night to go by without posting something in his honor. He was an interesting person —