The works of Lord Byron A new, revised and enlarged edition, with illustrations. Edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge and R. E. Prothero |
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LINES INSCRIBED UPON A CUP FORMED
FROM A SKULL. |
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| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| 7. |
 | The works of Lord Byron |  |
276
LINES INSCRIBED UPON A CUP FORMED FROM A SKULL.
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Start not—nor deem my spirit fled:In me behold the only skull,
From which, unlike a living head,
Whatever flows is never dull.
2
I lived, I loved, I quaff'd, like thee:I died: let earth my bones resign;
Fill up—thou canst not injure me;
The worm hath fouler lips than thine.
3
Better to hold the sparkling grape,Than nurse the earth-worm's slimy brood;
And circle in the goblet's shape
The drink of Gods, than reptile's food.
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4
Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone,In aid of others' let me shine;
And when, alas! our brains are gone,
What nobler substitute than wine?
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Quaff while thou canst: another race,When thou and thine, like me, are sped,
May rescue thee from earth's embrace,
And rhyme and revel with the dead.
6
Why not? since through life's little dayOur heads such sad effects produce;
Redeem'd from worms and wasting clay,
This chance is theirs, to be of use.
Newstead Abbey, 1808.
| The works of Lord Byron | |