Lord Byron – Childe Harold Canto 3 part 4
Childe Harold comes to cross the Rhine “But Thou, exulting and abounding river! making thy waves a blessing as they flow through banks whose beauty would endure forever could man but leave thy bright creation so,….”.”Nor was all love shut from him, though his days of passion had consumed themselves to dust”. But yet “And he had learn’d to love…. In him this glowed when all beside had ceased to glow”. He remembers “And there was one soft breast,.. which unto him was bound by stronger ties than the church links withal”. On the banks of the Rhine he sings his forlone song to the love of his life, perhaps Lady Caroline Lamb, saying “But one thing want these banks of Rhine,- thy gentle hand to clasp in mine”.
