Byron first dealt with the subject in The Giaour (1813):
But first on earth, as Vampyre sent,
Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent;
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And such the blood of all thy race;
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet, which perforce
Must feed thy livid, living corse,
Thy victims, ere they yet expire,
Shall know the demon for their sire;
And cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem.This poem is in the public domain.
[A quick look at The Giaour online shows a poem in rhyming couplets lamenting the fall of classical Greece and its descent into modern degeneracy; a giaour seems to be some kind of Greek laird, or landed gentleman].
