Made Lud’s town with rejoicing fires bright,
And Britons strut with courage.”
Next to Shakespeare in intimate knowledge and power to portray, Byron must be placed. What can be grander than his well-known apostrophe to the Ocean?—
“Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean—roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin—his control
Stops with the shore;—upon the watery plain,
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own,
When, for a moment, like a drop of rain,