Read "Stanzas Written in Passing the Ambracian Gulf" by Lord Byron online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Through cloudless skies, in silvery sheen, / Full beams the moon on Actium's coast: / And on these waves for Egypt's queen, / The ancient world was won and lost.
And now upon the scene I look, / The azure grave of many a / Roman; Where stem Ambition once forsook / His wavering crown to follow woman.
Florence! whom I will love as well / As ever yet was said or sung(Since / Orpheus sang his spouse from hell), / Whilst thou art fair and I am young;
Sweet Florence! those were pleasant times; / When worlds were staked for ladies' / Had bards as many realms as rhymes; / Thy charms might raise new Antonies.
Though Fate forbids such things to be / Yet, by thine eyes and ringlets curl'd! / I cannot lose a world for thee, / But would not lose thee for a world.