"The sword, the banner, and the field,
Glory and Greece, around me see!
The Spartan, borne upon his shield,
Was not more free.
"Awake! (not Greece—she is awake!)
Awake! my spirit! Think through whom
Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake,
And then strike home!
"Tread those reviving passions down,
Unworthy manhood! unto thee
Indifferent should the smile or frown
Of Beauty be.
"If thou regrett'st thy youth, why live?
The land of honourable death
Is here:—up to the field, and give
Away thy breath!
"Seek out—less often sought than found—
A soldier's grave, for thee the best;
Then look around, and choose thy ground
And take thy rest."
These lines are from Byron's last poem, written on his thirty- sixth birthday.
Chapter LXXX SHELLEY—THE POET OF LOVE
WHEN Byron wandered upon the Continent he met and made friends with another poet, a greater than himself. This poet was called Percy Bysshe Shelley, and of him I am going to tell you something in this chapter.
On the 4th of August, 1792, Percy Bysshe Shelley was born at Field Place, near the village of Warnham, in Sussex. His father, "a well-meaning, ill-doing, wrong-headed man," was of a good family, and heir to a baronetcy. His mother was a beautiful woman.
Of the early childhood of Bysshe we know nothing, except that at the age of six he was daily taught Latin by a clergyman.