RAINBOW AT THE PEAK

Now overhead a rainbow, bursting through

The scattering clouds, shone, spanning the dark sea,

Resting its bright base on the quivering blue,

And all within its arch appeared to be

Clearer than that without, and its wide hue

Waxed broad and waving, like a banner free,

Then changed like to a bow that's bent, and then

Forsook the dim eyes of those shipwrecked men.
It changed of course -- a heavenly chameleon,

The airy child of vapour and the sun,

Brought forth in purple, cradled in vermilion,

Baptized in molten gold and swathed in dun,

Glittering like crescents o'er a Turk's pavilion

And blending every colour into one...
Our shipwrecked seamen thought it a good omen;

It is as well to think so now and then.

'Twas an old custom of the Greek and Roman,

And may become of great advantage when

Folks are discouraged; and most surely no men

Had greater need to nerve themselves again

Than those, and so this rainbow looked like hope,

Quite a celestial kaleidoscope.--

George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto II, 1819