George Gordon Byron

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WRITTEN AT ATHENS, JANUARY 16, 1810.

The spell is broke, the charm is flown!
   Thus is it with Life's fitful fever:
We madly smile when we should groan;
   Delirium is our best deceiver.
Each lucid interval of thought
   Recalls the woes of Nature's charter;
And He that acts as wise men ought,
   But lives — as Saints have died—a martyr.