The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 1. PoetryByron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
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The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 1. Poetry
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
Poetry
Voluptuous Waltz! and dare I thus blaspheme?
Thy bard forgot thy praises were his theme.
Terpsichore forgive!--at every Ball 250
My wife _now_ waltzes--and my daughters _shall_;
_My_ son--(or stop--'tis needless to inquire--
These little accidents should ne'er transpire;
Some ages hence our genealogic tree [xiii]
Will wear as green a bough for him as me)--
Waltzing shall rear, to make our name amends
Grandsons for me--in heirs to all his friends.
[Footnote 1: "Glance their many-twinkling feet."--GRAY.]
[Footnote 2: Lines 15-28 do not appear in the MS., but ten lines
(omitting lines 21-24) were inserted in Proof No. 1.]
[Footnote 3: To rival Lord Wellesley's, or his nephew's, as the reader
pleases:--the one gained a pretty woman, whom he deserved, by fighting
for; and the other has been fighting in the Peninsula many a long day,
"by Shrewsbury clock," without gaining anything in 'that' country but
the title of "the Great Lord," and "the Lord;" which savours of
profanation, having been hitherto applied only to that Being to whom
"'Te Deums'" for carnage are the rankest blasphemy.--It is to be
presumed the general will one day return to his Sabine farm: there
"To tame the genius of the stubborn plain,
'Almost as quickly' as he conquer'd Spain!"
The Lord Peterborough conquered continents in a summer; we do more--we
contrive both to conquer and lose them in a shorter season. If the
"great Lord's" 'Cincinnatian' progress in agriculture be no speedier
than the proportional average of time in Pope's couplet, it will,
according to the farmer's proverb, be "ploughing with dogs."
By the bye--one of this illustrious person's new titles is forgotten--it
is, however, worth remembering--"'Salvador del mundo!" credite,
posteri'! If this be the appellation annexed by the inhabitants of the
Peninsula to the name of a 'man' who has not yet saved them--query--are
they worth saving, even in this world? for, according to the mildest
modifications of any Christian creed, those three words make the odds
much against them in the next--"Saviour of the world," quotha!--it were
to be wished that he, or any one else, could save a corner of it--his
country. Yet this stupid misnomer, although it shows the near connection
between superstition and impiety, so far has its use, that it proves
there can be little to dread from those Catholics (inquisitorial
Catholics too) who can confer such an appellation on a 'Protestant'. I
suppose next year he will be entitled the "Virgin Mary;" if so, Lord
George Gordon himself would have nothing to object to such liberal
bastards of our Lady of Babylon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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