Damætas - Lord George Byron

In law an infant, and in years a boy,

In mind a slave to every vicious joy;

From every sense of shame and virtue wean'd,

In lies an adept, in deceit a fiend;

Vers'd in hypocrisy, while yet a child;

Fickle as wind, of inclinations wild;

Woman his dupe, his heedless friend a tool;

Old in the world, though scarcely broke from school;

Damætas ran through all the maze of sin,

And found the goal, when others just begin:

Ev'n still conflicting passions shake his soul,

And bid him drain the dregs of Pleasure's bowl;

But, pall'd with vice, he breaks his former chain,

And what was once his bliss appears his bane.

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Lord George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) England

Source: Hours of idleness, a series of poems, original and translated by George Gordon Byron, Baron; W.T. Sherwin; 1820

Footnote reads "In Law, every person is an infant, who has not attained the age of 21"