Don Juan 02-039
Canto the Second

XXXIX

Under the vessel's keel the sail was past,
     And for the moment it had some effect;
But with a leak, and not a stick of mast,
     Nor rag of canvas, what could they expect-
But still 't is best to struggle to the last,
     'T is never too late to be wholly wreck'd:
And though 't is true that man can only die once,
'T is not so pleasant in the Gulf of Lyons.

George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) ByronLong