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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students

To Belshazzar

Lord Byron·1788–1824
Lines:24Movement:Romanticism
Belshazzar! from the banquet turn, Nor in thy sensual fulness fall;Behold! while yet before thee burn The graven words, the glowing wall,Many a despot men miscall Crowned and anointed from on high;But thou, the weakest, worst of all-- Is it not written, thou must die? Go! dash the roses from thy brow-- Grey hairs but poorly wreathe with them;Youth's garlands misbecome thee now, More than thy very diadem,Where thou hast tarnished every gem:-- Then throw the worthless bauble by,Which, worn by thee, ev'n slaves contemn; And learn like better men to die! Oh! early in the balance weighed, And ever light of word and worth,Whose soul expired ere youth decayed, And left thee but a mass of earth.To see thee moves the scorner's mirth: But tears in Hope's averted eyeLament that even thou hadst birth-- Unfit to govern, live, or die.