Sonnet to Lake Leman

by Lord Byron

Rousseau — Voltaire — our Gibbon — and De StaĆ«l —     Leman! these names are worthy of thy shore,     Thy shore of names like these! wert thou no more, Their memory thy remembrance would recall: To them thy banks were lovely as to all, But they have made them lovelier, for the lore     Of mighty minds doth hallow in the core Of human hearts the ruin of a wall     Where dwelt the wise and wondrous; but by thee How much more, Lake of Beauty! do we feel,     In sweetly gliding o'er thy crystal sea, The wild glow of that not ungentle zeal,     Which of the Heirs of Immortality Is proud, and makes the breath of Glory real!


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