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SONNET TO LAKE LEMAN by GEORGE GORDON BYRON

Poet Analysis

First Line: ROUSSEAU, VOLTAIRE, OUR GIBBON, AND DE STAEL
Last Line: IS PROUD, AND MAKES THE BREATH OF GLORY REAL!
Subject(s): GENEVA (LAKE), SWITZERLAND; ROUSSEAU, JEAN JACQUES (1712-1778); STAEL, ANNA (NECKER) DE (1766-1817); VOLTAIRE, FRANCOIS MARIE AROUET DE; LEMAN, LAKE;

Rousseau -- Voltaire -- our Gibbon -- and de Stael --
Leman! these names are worthy of thy shore,
Thy shore of names like these! wert thou no more,
Their memory thy remembrance would recall:
To them thy banks were lovely as to all,
But they have made them lovelier, for the lore
Of mighty minds doth hallow in the core
Of human hearts the ruin of a wall
Where dwelt the wise and wondrous; but by @3thee@1
How much more, Lake of Beauty! do we feel,
In sweetly gliding o'er thy crystal sea,
The wild glow of that not ungentle zeal,
Which of the heirs of immortality
Is proud, and makes the breath of glory real!



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