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From “Don Juan,” Canto I.
’T IS sweet to hear, | |
| At midnight on the blue and moonlit deep, | |
| The song and oar of Adria’s gondolier, | |
| By distance mellowed, o’er the waters sweep; | |
| ’T is sweet to see the evening star appear; | 5 |
| ’T is sweet to listen as the night-winds creep | |
| From leaf to leaf; ’t is sweet to view on high | |
| The rainbow, based on ocean, span the sky. | |
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| ’T is sweet to hear the watch-dog’s honest bark | |
| Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home; | 10 |
| ’T is sweet to know there is an eye will mark | |
| Our coming, and look brighter when we come; | |
| ’T is sweet to be awakened by the lark, | |
| Or lulled by falling waters; sweet the hum | |
| Of bees, the voice of girls, the song of birds, | 15 |
| The lisp of children, and their earliest words. | |
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| Sweet is the vintage, when the showering grapes | |
| In Bacchanal profusion reel to earth, | |
| Purple and gushing: sweet are our escapes | |
| From civic revelry to rural mirth; | 20 |
| Sweet to the miser are his glittering heaps; | |
| Sweet to the father is his first-born’s birth; | |
| Sweet is revenge,—especially to women, | |
| Pillage to soldiers, prize-money to seamen. * * * * * | |
| ’T is sweet to win, no matter how, one’s laurels, | 25 |
| By blood or ink; ’t is sweet to put an end | |
| To strife; ’t is sometimes sweet to have our quarrels, | |
| Particularly with a tiresome friend; | |
| Sweet is old wine in bottles, ale in barrels; | |
| Dear is the helpless creature we defend | 30 |
| Against the world; and dear the schoolboy spot | |
| We ne’er forget, though there we are forgot. | |
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| But sweeter still than this, than these, than all, | |
| Is first and passionate love,—it stands alone, | |
| Like Adam’s recollection of his fall; | 35 |
| The tree of knowledge has been plucked,—all ’s known,— | |
| And life yields nothing further to recall | |
| Worthy of this ambrosial sin, so shown, | |
| No doubt in fable, as the unforgiven | |
| Fire which Prometheus filched for us from heaven. | 40 |
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