To Belshazzar
To Belshazzar - meaning Summary
Hubris Meets Inevitable Judgment
Byron addresses the Babylonian king Belshazzar, warning him to abandon excess and acknowledge mortality. The speaker contrasts the king’s sensual vanity with the moral and political consequences of his decadence, urging him to cast off youthful ornaments and confront death with dignity. The poem frames Belshazzar as unfit to rule or die, provoking scorn and pity while insisting that even despots cannot escape judgment and fate.
Read Complete AnalysesBelshazzar! 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 Crown’d 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 tarnish’d 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 weigh’d, And ever light of word and worth, Whose soul expired ere youth decay’d, And left thee but a mass of earth. To see thee moves the scorner’s mirth: But tears in Hope’s averted eye Lament that even thou hadst birth– Unfit to govern, live, or die.
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