If night is mute, yet the returning sun 295
Kindles the voices of the morning birds;
Nor at thy bidding less exultingly
Than birds rejoicing in the golden day,
The Anarchies of Africa unleash
Their tempest-winged cities of the sea, 300
To speak in thunder to the rebel world. 
Like sulphurous clouds, half-shattered by the storm,
They sweep the pale Aegean, while the Queen
Of Ocean, bound upon her island-throne,
Far in the West, sits mourning that her sons 305
Who frown on Freedom spare a smile for thee: 
Russia still hovers, as an eagle might
Within a cloud, near which a kite and crane
Hang tangled in inextricable fight,
To stoop upon the victor;—­for she fears 310
The name of Freedom, even as she hates thine. 
But recreant Austria loves thee as the Grave
Loves Pestilence, and her slow dogs of war
Fleshed with the chase, come up from Italy,
And howl upon their limits; for they see 315
The panther, Freedom, fled to her old cover,
Amid seas and mountains, and a mightier brood
Crouch round.  What Anarch wears a crown or mitre,
Or bears the sword, or grasps the key of gold,
Whose friends are not thy friends, whose foes thy foes? 320
Our arsenals and our armouries are full;
Our forts defy assault; ten thousand cannon
Lie ranged upon the beach, and hour by hour
Their earth-convulsing wheels affright the city;
The galloping of fiery steeds makes pale 325
The Christian merchant; and the yellow Jew
Hides his hoard deeper in the faithless earth. 
Like clouds, and like the shadows of the clouds,
Over the hills of Anatolia,
Swift in wide troops the Tartar chivalry 330
Sweep;—­the far flashing of their starry lances
Reverberates the dying light of day. 
We have one God, one King, one Hope, one Law;
But many-headed Insurrection stands
Divided in itself, and soon must fall. 335

NOTES:  253 spoil edition 1822; spoils editions 1839. 279 bear edition 1822; have editions 1839. 322 assault edition 1822; assaults editions 1839.

MAHMUD: 
Proud words, when deeds come short, are seasonable: 
Look, Hassan, on yon crescent moon, emblazoned
Upon that shattered flag of fiery cloud
Which leads the rear of the departing day;
Wan emblem of an empire fading now! 340
See how it trembles in the blood-red air,
And like a mighty lamp whose oil is spent
Shrinks on the horizon’s edge, while, from above,
One star with insolent and victorious light
Hovers above its fall, and with keen beams, 345
Like arrows through a fainting antelope,
Strikes its weak form to death.