Lord Byron read by Classic Poetry Aloud: Giving voice to the poetry of the past.

www.classicpoetryaloud.com

--------------------------------------------

from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

by George Gordon, Lord 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.

And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy

Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be

Borne, like thy bubbles, onward; from a boy

I wantoned with thy breakers,--they to me

Were a delight; and if the freshening sea

Made them a terror, 'twas a pleasing fear;

For I was as it were a child of thee,

And trusted to thy billows far and near,

And laid my hand upon thy mane,--as I do here.

First aired: 8 January 2009

For hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index.

Reading © Classic Poetry Aloud 2009