lord_byron

lord_byron Damaetas

b

In law an infant, and in years a boy,

In mind a slave to every vicious joy;

From every sense of shame and virtue wean'd;

In lies an adept, in deceit a fiend;

Versed in hypocrisy, while yet a child;

Fickle as wind, of inclinations wild;

Women his dupe, his heedless friend a tool;

Old in the world, though scarcely broke from school;

Damaetas ran through all the maze of sin,

And found the goal when others just begin:

Even still conflicting passions shake his soul,

And bid him drain the dregs of pleasure's bowl;

But, pall'd with vice, he breaks his former chain,

And what was once his bliss appears his bane.