The Greek struggle for independence aroused conflicting emotions in Europe. The passionate sympathy of the Russians rested wholly on their religious bonds. The more enlightened Philhellenes of France and Germany affected to see in this struggle a revival of the ancient Greek spirit that blazed forth at Thermopylae and Marathon. For this same reason, perhaps, Metternich and his colleagues in the Holy Alliance looked upon the Greek revolution with an evil eye. Any cause espoused by the hot-headed liberals at the universities in those days of itself became obnoxious to the reactionary rulers of the German and Austrian states. [Sidenote: Lord Byron's Greek lyrics] The sympathy with the Greeks was most pronounced in England. There the stirring lyrics of Lord Byron had reached the height of their popularity. His songs of Greece and Greek freedom were justly regarded as among his best. It was but a short time before this that the poet, to use his own phrase, had awakened one morning to find himself famous. Now his Greek songs were hailed by the whole world as classics. Notable among them were the "Isles of Greece," embodied in the third canto of his "Don Juan" with the famous stanza: The mountains look on Marathon-- And Marathon looks on the sea; And musing there an hour alone I dreamed that Greece might still be free. And the equally celebrated lines from "The Bride of Abydos": Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime? Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime! [Sidenote: Death of Keats] [Sidenote: Byron's satire] [Sidenote: Keats's work] In English literary annals this year was marked furthermore by the death of John Keats. He was but twenty-five, still in the first flush of his genius. Keats was buried in Rome, where he died. On his gravestone is the epitaph composed by himself: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water." It was generally assumed in England that the poet's death was caused by his anguish over the merciless criticisms of "Blackwood's Magazine" and the "Quarterly Review." Lord Byron was unkind enough to exploit this notion in his "Don Juan": John Keats, who was killed off by one critique, Just as he really promised something great If not intelligible, without Greek Contrived to talk about the gods of late Much as they might have been supposed to speak. Poor fellow! His was an untoward fate; 'Tis strange the mind, that very fiery particle, Should let itself be snuffed out by an article.