A gentleman so rich in the world's goods,
Handsome and young, enjoying all the present,
405 Just at the very time when he least broods
On such a thing is suddenly to sea sent,
Wounded and chain'd, so that he cannot move,
And all because a lady fell in love.
? ?
56
Afric is all the sun's, and as her earth
Her human clay is kindled; full of power
1. Term used in the Near East to designate a 2. Small, fast galleys, propelled by both oars and Western European. sails.
.
732 / GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
For good or evil, burning from its birth,
The Moorish blood partakes the planet's hour,
445 And like the soil beneath it will bring forth: Beauty and love were Haidee's mother's dower;0 dmvry
But her large dark eye show'd deep Passion's force,
Though sleeping like a lion near a source. 57
Her daughter, temper'd with a milder ray,
450 Like summer clouds all silvery, smooth, and fair,
Till slowly charged with thunder they display
Terror to earth, and tempest to the air,
Had held till now her soft and milky way;
But overwrought with passion and despair,
455 The fire burst forth from her Numidian0 veins, North African Even as the Simoom3 sweeps the blasted plains.
58
The last sight which she saw was Juan's gore,
And he himself o'ermaster'd and cut down;
His blood was running on the very floor
460 Where late he trod, her beautiful, her own;
Thus much she view'd an instant and no more,?
Her struggles ceased with one convulsive groan;
On her sire's arm, which until now scarce held
Her writhing, fell she like a cedar fell'd. 59
465 A vein had burst, and her sweet lips' pure dyes
Were dabbled with the deep blood which ran o'er;4
And her head droop'd as when the lily lies
O'ercharged with rain: her summon'd handmaids bore
Their lady to her couch with gushing eyes;
470 Of herbs and cordials they produced their store,
But she defied all means they could employ,
Like one life could not hold, nor death destroy.
60
Days lay she in that state unchanged, though chill
With nothing livid,5 still her lips were red;
475 She had no pulse, but death seem'd absent still;
No hideous sign proclaim'd her surely dead;
Corruption came not in each mind to kill
All hope; to look upon her sweet face bred
