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Home  »  English Poetry II  »  475. Maid of Athens

English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

George Gordon, Lord Byron

475. Maid of Athens


MAID of Athens, ere we part,

Give, oh, give me back my heart!

Or, since that has left my breast,

Keep it now, and take the rest!

Hear my vow, before I go,

[Greek].

By those tresses unconfined,

Woo’d by each Ægean wind;

By those lids whose jetty fringe

Kiss thy soft cheeks’ blooming tinge;

By those wild eyes like the roe,

[Greek].

By that lip I long to taste;

By that zone-encircled waist;

By all the token-flowers that tell

What words can never speak so well;

By love’s alternate joy and woe,

[Greek].

Maid of Athens! I am gone:

Think of me, sweet! when alone.

Though I fly to Istambol,

Athens holds my heart and soul;

Can I cease to love thee? No!

[Greek].