Lord Byron – Childe Harold Canto 4 part 5
Childe, reminded of Rome’s greatest defeat by Hanibal, “Is of another temper, and I roam by Thrasimene’s Lake, in the defiles fatal to Roman rashness,…”; but following that he comes to “But thou, Clitumnus! in the sweetest wave of the most living crystal that was e’er the haunt of river nymph, … a mirror and a bath for Beauty’s youngest daughters!”. Down “Once more upon the woody Apennine’ he finds the river “Velino cleaves the wave-worn precipice; the fall of waters!” “Horribly beautiful!….Love matching Madness with unalterable mien.”.Childe wants to avoid “Aught that recalls the daily drug which turn’d my sickening memory;….”, nevertheless “Horace; whom I hated so,…. Although no deeper Moralist rehearse our little life, nor Bard prescribe his art, nor livelier Satirist the conscience pierce,….”
