Whence the broad moon rose circling into sight;
They heard the wave's splash, and the wind so low,
And saw each other's dark eyes darting light
Into each other?and, beholding this,
Their lips drew near, and clung into a kiss;
186
A long, long kiss, a kiss of youth and love,
And beauty, all concentrating like rays
Into one focus, kindled from above;
Such kisses as belong to early days,
Where heart, and soul, and sense, in concert move,
And the blood's lava, and the pulse a blaze,
Each kiss a heart-quake,?for a kiss's strength,
I think, it must be reckon'd by its length.
187
By length I mean duration; theirs endured
Heaven knows how long?no doubt they never reckon'd;
And if they had, they could not have secured
The sum of their sensations to a second:
They had not spoken; but they felt allured,
As if their souls and lips each other beckon'd,
Which, being join'd, like swarming bees they clung?
Their hearts the flowers from whence the honey sprung.
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DO N JUAN , CANT O 2 / 71 3 188 1500They were alone, but not alone as they Who shut in chambers think it loneliness; The silent ocean, and the starlight bay, The twilight glow, which momently grew less, The voiceless sands, and dropping caves, that lay Around them, made them to each other press, As if there were no life beneath the sky Save theirs, and that their life could never die. 189 1505 1510 They fear'd no eyes nor ears on that lone beach, They felt no terrors from the night, they were All in all to each other: though their speech Was broken words, they thought a language there,? And all the burning tongues the passions teach Found in one sigh the best interpreter Of nature's oracle?first love,?that all Which Eve has left her daughters since her fall. 190 1515 1520 Haidee6 spoke not of scruples, ask'd no vows, Nor offer'd any; she had never heard Of plight and promises to be a spouse, Or perils by a loving maid incurr'd; She was all which pure ignorance allows, And flew to her young mate like a young bird; And, never having dreamt of falsehood, she Had not one word to say of constancy. 191 1525She loved, and was beloved?she adored, And she was worshipp'd; after nature's fashion, Their intense souls, into each other pour'd, If souls could die, had perish'd in that passion,? But by degrees their senses were restored, Again to be o'ercome, again to dash on; And, beating 'gainst his bosom, Haidee's heart Felt as if never more to beat apart. 192 15301535Alas! they were so young, so beautiful, So lonely, loving, helpless, and the hour Was that in which the heart is always full, And, having o'er itself no further power, Prompts deeds eternity can not annul, But pays off moments in an endless shower Of hell-fire?all prepared for people giving
Pleasure or pain to one another living.
6. Byron said, with reference to Haidee: 'I was, and am, penetrated with the conviction that women only know evil from men, whereas men have no criterion to judge of purity or goodness but woman.'
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71 4 / GEORG E GORDON , LOR D BYRON '93 1540Alas! for Juan and Haidee! they were So loving and so lovely?till then never, Excepting our first parents, such a pair Had run the risk of being damn'd for ever; And Haidee, being devout as well as fair, Had, doubtless, heard about the Stygian river,7 And hell and purgatory?but forgot Just in the very crisis she should not. 194 15451550 They look upon each other, and their eyes Gleam in the moonlight; and her white arm clasps Round Juan's head, and his around hers lies Half buried in the tresses which it grasps; She sits upon his knee, and drinks his sighs, He hers, until they end in broken gasps; And thus they form a group that's quite antique, Half naked, loving, natural, and Greek. 195 15551560And when those deep and burning moments pass'd, And Juan sunk to sleep within her arms, She slept not, but all tenderly, though fast, Sustain'd his head upon her bosom's charms; And now and then her eye to heaven is cast, And then on the pale cheek her breast now warms, Pillow'd on her o'erflowing heart, which pants With all it granted, and with all it grants. 196 1565An infant when it gazes on a light, A child the moment when it drains the breast, A devotee when soars the Host8 in sight, An Arab with a stranger for a guest, A sailor when the prize has struck9 in fight, A miser filling his most hoarded chest, Feel rapture; but not such true joy are reaping As they who watch o'er what they love while sleeping. 197 15701575For there it lies so tranquil, so beloved, All that it hath of life with us is living; So gentle, stirless, helpless, and unmoved, And all unconscious of the joy 'tis giving; All it hath felt, inflicted, pass'd, and proved, Hush'd into depths beyond the watcher's diving; There lies the thing we love with all its errors
And all its charms, like death without its terrors.
7. The Styx, which flows through Hades. 9. When a captured vessel (a 'prize') lowers its 8. The bread or wafer that a priest consecrates to flag in token of surrender. celebrate Mass.
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DO N JUAN , CANT O 4 / 71 5 101 1580The lady watch'd her lover?and that hour Of Love's, and Night's, and Ocean's solitude, O'erflow'd her soul with their united power; Amidst the barren sand and rocks so rude She and
