The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero)/Poetry/Volume 7/Journal in Cephalonia

by George Gordon Byron

JOURNAL IN CEPHALONIA.

The dead have been awakened—shall I sleep?
The World's at war with tyrants—shall I crouch?
The harvest's ripe—and shall I pause to reap?
I slumber not; the thorn is in my Couch;
Each day a trumpet soundeth in mine ear,
Its echo in my heart——

June 19, 1823.
[First published, Letters, 1901, vi. 238.]