This twofold character of the poet it is that is revealed in his best poems, "Childe Harold" and "Don Juan." He used both works as receptacles for the most incongruous ideas. "If things are farcical," he once said to Trelawney, "they will do for 'Don Juan'; if heroical, you shall have another canto of 'Childe Harold.'" This means of disposing of his poetic ideas accounts for the great volume of Byron's verse as well as for its inequality. That "Don Juan" was never finished cannot therefore be regretted. [Sidenote: His last verses] Byron's last verses were lines written on January 22, 1824, at Missolonghi. To one of his English military associates in the expedition of Lepanto he remarked: "You were complaining that I never write any poetry now. This is my birthday, and I have just finished something which, I think, is better than what I usually write." They were the famous lines, "On this Day I complete my Thirty-sixth Year": 'Tis time the heart should be unmoved, Since others it hath ceased to move; Yet, though I cannot be beloved, Still let me love! My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of love are gone; The worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine alone! * * * * * Awake! (not Greece--she is awake!) Awake my spirit! Think through whom Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake, And then strike home! If thou regret'st thy youth, why live? The land of honorable 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! [Sidenote: Russian suzerainty rejected by Greeks] [Sidenote: Ibrahim invades Greece] [Sidenote: Sack of Psara]