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d, however broad. Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! Our virgins dance beneath the shade,-- see their glorious black eyes shine; But, gazing on each glowing maid, My own the burning tear-drop laves, To think such breasts must suckle slaves. Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, Where nothing, save the waves and I, May hear our mutual murmurs sweep; There, swan-like, let me sing and die. A land of slaves shall ne'er be mine,-- Dash down yon cup of Samian wine! LORD BYRON. * * * * * TO ALTHEA FROM PRISON. When Love with unconfined wings Hovers within my gates, And by divine Althea brings To whisper at my grates; When I lie tangled in her hair And fettered with her eye, The birds that wanton in the air Know no such liberty. When flowing cups pass swiftly round With no allaying Thames, Our careless heads with roses crowned, Our hearts with loyal flames; When thirsty grief in wine we steep, When healths and draughts go free, Fishes that tipple in the deep Know no such liberty. When, like committed linnets, I With shriller throat shall sing The mercy, sweetness, majesty And glories of my King; When I shall voice aloud, how good He is, how great should be, Enlarged winds that curl the flood Know no such liberty. Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; Minds innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage: If I have freedom in my love, And in my soul am free, Angels alone, that soar above, Enjoy such liberty. RICHARD LOVELACE. * * * * * SLAVERY. FROM "THE TIMEPIECE": "THE TASK," BK. II. O for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade, Where rumor of oppression and deceit, Of unsuccessful or successful war, Might never reach me more! My ear is pained, My soul is sick, with every day's report Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled. There is no flush in man's obdurate heart; It does not feel for man; the natural bond Of brotherhood is served as the flax, That falls asunder at the touch of fire. He finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not colored like his own, and, having power To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey. Lands intersected by a narrow
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