VIII.
Yet ofttimes in his maddest mirthful
mood,
Strange pangs would flash along
Childe Harold’s brow,
As if the memory of some deadly
feud
Or disappointed passion lurked below:
But this none knew, nor haply cared
to know;
For his was not that open, artless
soul
That feels relief by bidding sorrow
flow;
Nor sought he friend to counsel
or condole,
Whate’er this grief mote be, which he could
not control.
IX.
And none did love him: though
to hall and bower
He gathered revellers from far and
near,
He knew them flatterers of the festal
hour;
The heartless parasites of present
cheer.
Yea, none did love him—not
his lemans dear —
But pomp and power alone are woman’s
care,
And where these are light Eros finds
a feere;
Maidens, like moths, are ever caught
by glare,
And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.
X.
Childe Harold had a mother—not
forgot,
Though parting from that mother
he did shun;
A sister whom he loved, but saw
her not
Before his weary pilgrimage begun:
If friends he had, he bade adieu
to none.
Yet deem not thence his breast a
breast of steel;
Ye, who have known what ’tis
to dote upon
A few dear objects, will in sadness
feel
Such partings break the heart they fondly hope to
heal.
XI.
His house, his home, his heritage,
his lands,
The laughing dames in whom he did
delight,
Whose large blue eyes, fair locks,
and snowy hands,
Might shake the saintship of an
anchorite,
And long had fed his youthful appetite;
His goblets brimmed with every costly
wine,
And all that mote to luxury invite,
Without a sigh he left to cross
the brine,
And traverse Paynim shores, and pass earth’s
central line.
XII.
The sails were filled, and fair
the light winds blew
As glad to waft him from his native
home;
And fast the white rocks faded from
his view,
And soon were lost in circumambient
foam;
And then, it may be, of his wish
to roam
Repented he, but in his bosom slept
The silent thought, nor from his
lips did come
One word of wail, whilst others
sate and wept,
And to the reckless gales unmanly moaning kept.
XIII.
But when the sun was sinking in
the sea,
He seized his harp, which he at
times could string,
And strike, albeit with untaught
melody,
When deemed he no strange ear was
listening:
And now his fingers o’er it
he did fling,
And tuned his farewell in the dim
twilight,
While flew the vessel on her snowy
wing,
And fleeting shores receded from
his sight,
Thus to the elements he poured his last ‘Good
Night.’