University of Virginia Library

SPENSERIAN.

[Thou, Byron, wast—like him, the iron-crown'd—]

Thou, Byron, wast—like him, the iron-crown'd—
Thought-stricken, scorch'd, and “old in middle age.”
“All-naked feeling's” restless victims bound,
Ill could renown your secret pangs assuage.

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Two names of glory in one deathless page!
Both unbeloved, both peerless, both exil'd,
And prison'd both, though one could choose his cage;
Dying, he call'd, in vain, on wife and child;
And in your living hearts, the worm was domiciled.