The Vision of Judgement

I

Saint Peter sat by the celestial gate:

His keys were rusty, and the lock was dull,

So little trouble had been given of late;

Not that the place by any means was full,

But since the Gallic era "eighty-eight"*

The devils had ta'en a longer, stronger pull,

And "a pull altogether", as they say

At sea — which drew most souls another way.

II

The angels all were singing out of tune, And hoarse with having little else to do, Excepting to wind up the sun and moon, Or curb a runaway young star or two, Or wild colt of a comet, which too soon Broke out of bounds o'er the ethereal blue, Splitting some planet with its playful tail, As boats are sometimes by a wanton whale.

* The French Revolution (1788-1789).

112

Ill

The guardian seraphs had retired on high, Finding their charges past all care below; Terrestrial business fill'd nought in the sky Save the recording angel's black bureau; Who found, indeed, the facts to multiply With such rapidity of vice and woe, That he had stripp'd off both his wings in quills, i And yet was in arrears of human ills.

VIII

In the first year of freedom's second dawn

Died George the Third; although no tyrant, опеЯ

Who shielded tyrants, till each sense withdrawn*

Left him nor mental nor external sun:

A better farmer ne'er brush'd dew from lawn,

A worse king never left a realm undone!

He died — but left his subjects still behind,

One half as mad — and't other no less blind.

XIII

"God save the King!"

It is a large economy

In God to save the like; but if he will

Be saving, all the better; for not one am I

Of those who think damnation better still:

I hardly know too if not quite alone am I

In this small hope of bettering future ill

By circumscribing, with some slight restriction,

The eternity of hell's hot jurisdiction.

George III (1760-1820) became deaf, blind and mad.

In Italy Byron participated in the political movement for the liberation of Italy. The defeat of the "Carbonaro" uprising (1821) was a heavy blow to the great fighter for liberty. He left Italy for Greece in summer 1823. Byron went there to fight for the liberation of that country from Turkish oppression. Even during his Greek period Byron couldn't do without writing. But he managed to write only several lyrical poems, because he died on April 19, 1824 of a dangerous fever. He was only 36. Byron's heart was buried in Greece, because the Greeks considered him their national hero; Byron's body was brought to England and buried in West­minster Abbey.

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