The works of Lord Byron A new, revised and enlarged edition, with illustrations. Edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge and R. E. Prothero |
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 | The works of Lord Byron |  |
TO CAROLINE.
1
Oh! when shall the grave hide for ever my sorrow?Oh! when shall my soul wing her flight from this clay?
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But brings, with new torture, the curse of to-day.
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From my eye flows no tear, from my lips flow no curses,I blast not the fiends who have hurl'd me from bliss;
For poor is the soul which, bewailing, rehearses
Its querulous grief, when in anguish like this—
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Was my eye, 'stead of tears, with red fury flakes bright'ning,Would my lips breathe a flame which no stream could assuage,
On our foes should my glance launch in vengeance its lightning,
With transport my tongue give a loose to its rage.
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But now tears and curses, alike unavailing,Would add to the souls of our tyrants delight;
Could they view us our sad separation bewailing,
Their merciless hearts would rejoice at the sight.
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Yet, still, though we bend with a feign'd resignation,Life beams not for us with one ray that can cheer;
Love and Hope upon earth bring no more consolation,
In the grave is our hope, for in life is our fear.
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Oh! when, my ador'd, in the tomb will they place me,Since, in life, love and friendship for ever are fled?
If again in the mansion of death I embrace thee,
Perhaps they will leave unmolested—the dead.
1805.
| The works of Lord Byron | |