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Someone posted a quote from Lord Byron, I've dug into my ancient memory and remember the missing lines.

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 it's roar
I love not man the less
But Nature more
to mingle in the Universe and feel
What I can never express
Yet cannot all conceal

When I was a young teen, the one book I ever 'retained' from a library, the Collected Works of Lord Byron. The above lines I remember well.

Hobartian 5 Apr 30
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Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
George Gordon Byron, 1788 - 1824
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:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin--his control
Stops with the shore;--upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own,
When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.

His steps are not upon thy paths,--thy fields
Are not a spoil for him,--thou dost arise
And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields
For earth’s destruction thou dost all despise,
Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies,
And send’st him, shivering in thy playful spray
And howling, to his gods, where haply lies
His petty hope in some near port or bay,
And dashest him again to earth: —there let him lay.

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Did you ever read the play Cain by Lord Byron, overlooking the usual incest propaganda he was prone to placing in his work, the play itself stands as something esoterically between the book of Enoch and Dante's inferno.
If nothing else it is a beautiful linguistic construction, an occult exploration and and incite in to the mind of a great poet

Thank you so much for the full quote - it's very beautiful. He was a great poet, as a matter of fact I'd now like to read his biography. I seem to remember he was involved - in the Spanish Civil War, maybe he died there? I'll have to check. Thanks again

@Hobartian I believe so, I also think his service was the source of the Quote "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."
He died after being over bled by an incompetent army surgeon, which is ironic as John Polidori used Byron as the model for his protagonist Lord Ruthven, in "The Vampyre" the first successful and popular vampire fiction.
If you have time look up the biographical film "The Bad Lord Byron" starring Dennis Price in one of his best performances ever.
The film was made in the 1940s so is toned down a lot, but is a very enjoyable movie.

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IT WAS ME! That posted it. And I like it better without the missing lines. That's why. I also have an extremely exclusive "Poetry I Love" group if you want to join.

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Could you tell me which work this from? Admittedly I'm not aware of Lord Byron but I'm certainly interested now. Is it poetry as above?
Thanks!

Actually, it's been almost a lifetime since I read that poem - and I think I missed a couple of lines. Try to get hold of his works, you know, a real book - is there a library nearby? He wrote a huge amount of poetry, some of it very long. Almost narratives/stories of battles, love, life, society. Was a noted womaniser, and extremely handsome, I think maybe he attracted males too. You haven't heard of him? I'm amazed but he was English and I think, long out of any curriculum.

Just remembered one narrative/poem was called "Childe Harold"

@Hobartian great I'll check him out, thanks!

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