In law an infant, and in years a boy, <br />In mind a slave to every vicious joy; <br />From every sense of shame and virtue wean'd; <br />In lies an adept, in deceit a fiend; <br />Versed in hypocrisy, while yet a child; <br />Fickle as wind, of inclinations wild; <br />Women his dupe, his heedless friend a tool; <br />Old in the world, though scarcely broke from school; <br />Damætas ran through all the maze of sin, <br />And found the goal when others just begin: <br />Even still conflicting passions shake his soul, <br />And bid him drain the dregs of pleasure's bowl; <br />But, pall'd with vice, he breaks his former chain, <br />And what was once his bliss appears his bane.<br /><br />George Gordon Byron<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dam-tas/
