Lord Byron – Childe Harold Canto 4 part 12
“Oh! that the desert were my dwelling place,… that I might forget the human race, and , hating no one , love but only her!” is how Childe sums up his feelings about the human race. For him “There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, there is a rapture on the lonely shore, there is society, where none intrudes, by the deep Sea , and music in its roar:…”. “And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy of youthful sports was on thy breast to be borne like thy bubbles, onward:…”, remembering his boyhood. Lord Byron concludes “My task is done – my song hath ceased – my theme has died into an echo; …”, and bids us “Farewell! Ye! who have traced the Pilgrim to the scene which is his last,….”
