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 |  |
1
POEMS 1809–1813.
THE GIRL OF CADIZ.
1
Oh never talk again to meOf northern climes and British ladies;
It has not been your lot to see,
Like me, the lovely Girl of Cadiz.
Although her eye be not of blue,
Nor fair her locks, like English lasses,
How far its own expressive hue
The languid azure eye surpasses!
2
Prometheus-like from heaven she stoleThe fire that through those silken lashes
In darkest glances seems to roll,
From eyes that cannot hide their flashes:
2
In lengthened flow her raven tresses,
You'd swear each clustering lock could feel,
And curled to give her neck caresses.
3
Our English maids are long to woo,And frigid even in possession;
And if their charms be fair to view,
Their lips are slow at Love's confession;
But, born beneath a brighter sun,
For love ordained the Spanish maid is,
And who,—when fondly, fairly won,—
Enchants you like the Girl of Cadiz?
4
The Spanish maid is no coquette,Nor joys to see a lover tremble,
And if she love, or if she hate,
Alike she knows not to dissemble.
Her heart can ne'er be bought or sold—
Howe'er it beats, it beats sincerely;
And, though it will not bend to gold,
'Twill love you long and love you dearly.
5
The Spanish girl that meets your loveNe'er taunts you with a mock denial,
For every thought is bent to prove
Her passion in the hour of trial.
3
She dares the deed and shares the danger;
And should her lover press the plain,
She hurls the spear, her love's avenger.
6
And when, beneath the evening star,She mingles in the gay Bolero,
Or sings to her attuned guitar
Of Christian knight or Moorish hero,
Or counts her beads with fairy hand
Beneath the twinkling rays of Hesper,
Or joins Devotion's choral band,
To chaunt the sweet and hallowed vesper;—
7
In each her charms the heart must moveOf all who venture to behold her;
Then let not maids less fair reprove
Because her bosom is not colder:
Through many a clime 'tis mine to roam
Where many a soft and melting maid is,
But none abroad, and few at home,
May match the dark-eyed Girl of Cadiz.
1809.
4
LINES WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM, AT MALTA.
1
As o'er the cold sepulchral stoneSome name arrests the passer-by;
Thus, when thou view'st this page alone,
May mine attract thy pensive eye!
5
2
And when by thee that name is read,Perchance in some succeeding year,
Reflect on me as on the dead,
And think my Heart is buried here.
Malta, September 14, 1809.
TO FLORENCE.
1
Oh Lady! when I left the shore,The distant shore which gave me birth,
I hardly thought to grieve once more,
To quit another spot on earth:
2
Yet here, amidst this barren isle,Where panting Nature droops the head,
Where only thou art seen to smile,
I view my parting hour with dread.
3
Though far from Albin's craggy shore,Divided by the dark-blue main;
A few, brief, rolling seasons o'er,
Perchance I view her cliffs again:
4
But wheresoe'er I now may roam,Through scorching clime, and varied sea,
Though Time restore me to my home,
I ne'er shall bend mine eyes on thee:
6
5
On thee, in whom at once conspireAll charms which heedless hearts can move,
Whom but to see is to admire,
And, oh! forgive the word—to love.
6
Forgive the word, in one who ne'erWith such a word can more offend;
And since thy heart I cannot share,
Believe me, what I am, thy friend.
7
And who so cold as look on thee,Thou lovely wand'rer, and be less?
Nor be, what man should ever be,
The friend of Beauty in distress?
8
Ah! who would think that form had pastThrough Danger's most destructive path,
Had braved the death-winged tempest's blast,
And 'scaped a Tyrant's fiercer wrath?
9
Lady! when I shall view the wallsWhere free Byzantium once arose,
And Stamboul's Oriental halls
The Turkish tyrants now enclose;
7
10
Though mightiest in the lists of fame,That glorious city still shall be;
On me 'twill hold a dearer claim,
As spot of thy nativity:
11
And though I bid thee now farewell,When I behold that wondrous scene—
Since where thou art I may not dwell—
'Twill soothe to be where thou hast been.
September, 1809.
STANZAS COMPOSED DURING A THUNDERSTORM.
1
Chill and mirk is the nightly blast,Where Pindus' mountains rise,
8
The vengeance of the skies.
2
Our guides are gone, our hope is lost,And lightnings, as they play,
But show where rocks our path have crost,
Or gild the torrent's spray.
3
Is yon a cot I saw, though low?When lightning broke the gloom—
How welcome were its shade!—ah, no!
'Tis but a Turkish tomb.
4
Through sounds of foaming waterfalls,I hear a voice exclaim—
My way-worn countryman, who calls
On distant England's name.
5
A shot is fired—by foe or friend?Another—'tis to tell
The mountain-peasants to descend,
And lead us where they dwell.
6
Oh! who in such a night will dareTo tempt the wilderness?
9
Our signal of distress?
7
And who that heard our shouts would riseTo try the dubious road?
Nor rather deem from nightly cries
That outlaws were abroad.
8
Clouds burst, skies flash, oh, dreadful hour!More fiercely pours the storm!
Yet here one thought has still the power
To keep my bosom warm.
9
While wandering through each broken path,O'er brake and craggy brow;
While elements exhaust their wrath,
Sweet Florence, where art thou?
10
Not on the sea, not on the sea—Thy bark hath long been gone:
Oh, may the storm that pours on me,
Bow down my head alone!
11
Full swiftly blew the swift Siroc,When last I pressed thy lip;
And long ere now, with foaming shock,
Impelled thy gallant ship.
10
12
Now thou art safe; nay, long ere nowHast trod the shore of Spain;
'Twere hard if aught so fair as thou
Should linger on the main.
13
And since I now remember theeIn darkness and in dread,
As in those hours of revelry
Which Mirth and Music sped;
14
Do thou, amid the fair white walls,If Cadiz yet be free,
At times from out her latticed halls
Look o'er the dark blue sea;
15
Then think upon Calypso's isles,Endeared by days gone by;
To others give a thousand smiles,
To me a single sigh.
16
And when the admiring circle markThe paleness of thy face,
A half-formed tear, a transient spark
Of melancholy grace,
17
Again thou'lt smile, and blushing shunSome coxcomb's raillery;
Nor own for once thou thought'st on one,
Who ever thinks on thee.
11
18
Though smile and sigh alike are vain,When severed hearts repine,
My spirit flies o'er Mount and Main,
And mourns in search of thine.
October 11, 1809.
Composed Octr. 11, 1809, during the night in a thunderstorm, when the guides had lost the road to Zitza, near the range of mountains formerly called Pindus, in Albania.
STANZAS WRITTEN IN PASSING THE AMBRACIAN GULF.
1
Through cloudless skies, in silvery sheen,Full beams the moon on Actium's coast:
And on these waves, for Egypt's queen,
The ancient world was won and lost.
2
And now upon the scene I look,The azure grave of many a Roman;
Where stern Ambition once forsook
His wavering crown to follow Woman.
3
Florence! whom I will love as well(As ever yet was said or sung,
Since Orpheus sang his spouse from Hell)
Whilst thou art fair and I am young;
4
Sweet Florence! those were pleasant times,When worlds were staked for Ladies' eyes:
12
Thy charms might raise new Antonies.
5
Though Fate forbids such things to be,Yet, by thine eyes and ringlets curled!
I cannot lose a world for thee,
But would not lose thee for a World.
November 14, 1809.
THE SPELL IS BROKE, THE CHARM IS FLOWN!
WRITTEN AT ATHENS, JANUARY 16, 1810.
The spell is broke, the charm is flown!
Thus is it with Life's fitful fever:
We madly smile when we should groan;
Delirium is our best deceiver.
Each lucid interval of thought
Recalls the woes of Nature's charter;
And He that acts as wise men ought,
But lives—as Saints have died—a martyr.
13
WRITTEN AFTER SWIMMING FROM SESTOS TO ABYDOS.
1
If, in the month of dark December,Leander, who was nightly wont
(What maid will not the tale remember?)
To cross thy stream, broad Hellespont!
14
2
If, when the wintry tempest roared,He sped to Hero, nothing loth,
And thus of old thy current poured,
Fair Venus! how I pity both!
3
For me, degenerate modern wretch,Though in the genial month of May,
My dripping limbs I faintly stretch,
And think I've done a feat to-day.
4
But since he crossed the rapid tide,According to the doubtful story,
To woo,—and—Lord knows what beside,
And swam for Love, as I for Glory;
5
'Twere hard to say who fared the best:Sad mortals! thus the Gods still plague you!
He lost his labour, I my jest:
For he was drowned, and I've the ague.
May 9, 1810.
On the 3rd of May, 1810, while the Salsette (Captain Bathurst) was lying in the Dardanelles, Lieutenant Ekenhead, of that frigate, and the writer of these rhymes, swam from the European shore to the Asiatic—by the by, from Abydos to Sestos would have been more correct. The whole distance, from the place whence we started to our landing on the other side, including the length we were carried by the current, was computed by those on board the frigate at upwards of four English miles, though the actual breadth is barely one. The rapidity of the current is such that no boat can row directly across, and it may, in some measure, be estimated from the circumstance of the whole distance being accomplished by one of the parties in an hour and five, and by the other in an hour and ten minutes. The water was extremely cold, from the melting of the mountain snows. About three weeks before, in April, we had made an attempt; but having ridden all the way from the Troad the same morning, and the water being of an icy chillness, we found it necessary to postpone the completion till the frigate anchored below the castles, when we swam the straits as just stated, entering a considerable way above the European, and landing below the Asiatic, fort. Chevalier says that a young Jew swam the same distance for his mistress; and Olivier mentions its having been done by a Neapolitan; but our consul, Tarragona, remembered neither of these circumstances, and tried to dissuade us from the attempt. A number of the Salsette's crew were known to have accomplished a greater distance; and the only thing that surprised me was that, as doubts had been entertained of the truth of Leander's story, no traveller had ever endeavoured to ascertain its practicability.
15
LINES IN THE TRAVELLERS' BOOK AT ORCHOMENUS.
IN THIS BOOK A TRAVELLER HAD WRITTEN:—
“Fair Albion, smiling, sees her son depart
To trace the birth and nursery of art:
Noble his object, glorious is his aim;
He comes to Athens, and he—writes his name.”
To trace the birth and nursery of art:
Noble his object, glorious is his aim;
He comes to Athens, and he—writes his name.”
BENEATH WHICH LORD BYRON INSERTED THE
FOLLOWING:—
The modest bard, like many a bard unknown,
Rhymes on our names, but wisely hides his own;
But yet, whoe'er he be, to say no worse,
His name would bring more credit than his verse.
Rhymes on our names, but wisely hides his own;
But yet, whoe'er he be, to say no worse,
His name would bring more credit than his verse.
1810.
MAID OF ATHENS, ERE WE PART.
Ζωη μου, σας αγαπω.
1
Maid of Athens, ere we part,Give, oh give me back my heart!
16
Keep it now, and take the rest!
Hear my vow before I go,
Ζωη μου, σας αγαπω.
2
By those tresses unconfined,Wooed by each Ægean wind;
17
Kiss thy soft cheeks' blooming tinge;
By those wild eyes like the roe,
Ζωη μου, σας αγαπω.
3
By that lip I long to taste;By that zone-encircled waist;
By all the token-flowers that tell
What words can never speak so well;
By love's alternate joy and woe,
Ζωη μου, σας αγαπω.
4
Maid of Athens! I am gone:Think of me, sweet! when alone.
Though I fly to Istambol,
Athens holds my heart and soul:
Can I cease to love thee? No!
Ζωη μου, σας αγαπω.
Athens, 1810.
Romaic expression of tenderness. If I translate it, I shall affront the gentlemen, as it may seem that I supposed they could not; and if I do not, I may affront the ladies. For fear of any misconstruction on the part of the latter, I shall do so, begging pardon of the learned. It means, “My life, I love you!” which sounds very prettily in all languages, and is as much in fashion in Greece at this day as, Juvenal tells us, the two first words were amongst the Roman ladies, whose erotic expressions were all Hellenised.
In the East (where ladies are not taught to write, lest they should scribble assignations), flowers, cinders, pebbles, etc., convey the sentiments of the parties, by that universal deputy of Mercury— an old woman. A cinder says, “I burn for thee;” a bunch of flowers tied with hair, “Take me and fly;” but a pebble declares— what nothing else can.
18
FRAGMENT FROM THE “MONK OF ATHOS.”
1.
Beside the confines of the Ægean main,Where northward Macedonia bounds the flood,
And views opposed the Asiatic plain,
Where once the pride of lofty Ilion stood,
Like the great Father of the giant brood,
With lowering port majestic Athos stands,
Crowned with the verdure of eternal wood,
As yet unspoiled by sacrilegious hands,
And throws his mighty shade o'er seas and distant lands.
2.
And deep embosomed in his shady grovesFull many a convent rears its glittering spire,
Mid scenes where Heavenly Contemplation loves
To kindle in her soul her hallowed fire,
Where air and sea with rocks and woods conspire
To breathe a sweet religious calm around,
Weaning the thoughts from every low desire,
And the wild waves that break with murmuring sound
Along the rocky shore proclaim it holy ground.
3.
Sequestered shades where Piety has given
A quiet refuge from each earthly care,
Whence the rapt spirit may ascend to Heaven!
A quiet refuge from each earthly care,
19
Oh, ye condemned the ills of life to bear!
As with advancing age your woes increase,
What bliss amidst these solitudes to share
The happy foretaste of eternal Peace,
Till Heaven in mercy bids your pain and sorrows cease.
As with advancing age your woes increase,
What bliss amidst these solitudes to share
The happy foretaste of eternal Peace,
Till Heaven in mercy bids your pain and sorrows cease.
LINES WRITTEN BENEATH A PICTURE.
1
Dear object of defeated care!Though now of Love and thee bereft,
To reconcile me with despair
Thine image and my tears are left.
2
'Tis said with Sorrow Time can cope;But this I feel can ne'er be true:
For by the death-blow of my Hope
My Memory immortal grew.
Athens, January, 1811.
20
TRANSLATION OF THE FAMOUS GREEK WAR SONG, “Δευτε παιδες των Ελληνων.”
Sons of the Greeks, arise!
The glorious hour's gone forth,
And, worthy of such ties,
Display who gave us birth.
The glorious hour's gone forth,
And, worthy of such ties,
Display who gave us birth.
CHORUS.
Sons of Greeks! let us goIn arms against the foe,
Till their hated blood shall flow
In a river past our feet.
Then manfully despising
The Turkish tyrant's yoke,
Let your country see you rising,
And all her chains are broke.
Brave shades of chiefs and sages,
Behold the coming strife!
Hellénes of past ages,
Oh, start again to life!
At the sound of my trumpet, breaking
Your sleep, oh, join with me!
And the seven-hilled city seeking,
Fight, conquer, till we're free.
The Turkish tyrant's yoke,
21
And all her chains are broke.
Brave shades of chiefs and sages,
Behold the coming strife!
Hellénes of past ages,
Oh, start again to life!
At the sound of my trumpet, breaking
Your sleep, oh, join with me!
And the seven-hilled city seeking,
Fight, conquer, till we're free.
Sons of Greeks, etc.
Sparta, Sparta, why in slumbers
Lethargic dost thou lie?
Awake, and join thy numbers
With Athens, old ally!
Leonidas recalling,
That chief of ancient song,
Who saved ye once from falling,
The terrible! the strong!
Who made that bold diversion
In old Thermopylæ,
And warring with the Persian
To keep his country free;
With his three hundred waging
The battle, long he stood,
And like a lion raging,
Expired in seas of blood.
Lethargic dost thou lie?
Awake, and join thy numbers
With Athens, old ally!
Leonidas recalling,
That chief of ancient song,
Who saved ye once from falling,
The terrible! the strong!
Who made that bold diversion
In old Thermopylæ,
And warring with the Persian
To keep his country free;
With his three hundred waging
The battle, long he stood,
And like a lion raging,
Expired in seas of blood.
Sons of Greeks, etc.
The song Δευτε παιδες, etc., was written by Riga, who perished in the attempt to revolutionize Greece. This translation is as literal as the author could make it in verse. It is of the same measure as that of the original.
22
TRANSLATION OF THE ROMAIC SONG,
“Μπενω μεσ' το περιβολι,
Ωραιοτατη Χαηδη,” κ.τ.λ.
I enter thy garden of roses,
Belovéd and fair Haidée,
Each morning where Flora reposes,
For surely I see her in thee.
Oh, Lovely! thus low I implore thee,
Receive this fond truth from my tongue,
Which utters its song to adore thee,
Yet trembles for what it has sung;
As the branch, at the bidding of Nature,
Adds fragrance and fruit to the tree,
Through her eyes, through her every feature,
Shines the soul of the young Haidée.
Belovéd and fair Haidée,
Each morning where Flora reposes,
For surely I see her in thee.
Oh, Lovely! thus low I implore thee,
Receive this fond truth from my tongue,
Which utters its song to adore thee,
Yet trembles for what it has sung;
As the branch, at the bidding of Nature,
Adds fragrance and fruit to the tree,
Through her eyes, through her every feature,
Shines the soul of the young Haidée.
But the loveliest garden grows hateful
When Love has abandoned the bowers;
Bring me hemlock—since mine is ungrateful,
That herb is more fragrant than flowers.
The poison, when poured from the chalice,
Will deeply embitter the bowl;
But when drunk to escape from thy malice,
The draught shall be sweet to my soul.
Too cruel! in vain I implore thee
My heart from these horrors to save:
Will nought to my bosom restore thee?
Then open the gates of the grave.
When Love has abandoned the bowers;
Bring me hemlock—since mine is ungrateful,
That herb is more fragrant than flowers.
The poison, when poured from the chalice,
Will deeply embitter the bowl;
But when drunk to escape from thy malice,
The draught shall be sweet to my soul.
Too cruel! in vain I implore thee
My heart from these horrors to save:
Will nought to my bosom restore thee?
Then open the gates of the grave.
23
As the chief who to combat advances
Secure of his conquest before,
Thus thou, with those eyes for thy lances,
Hast pierced through my heart to its core.
Ah, tell me, my soul! must I perish
By pangs which a smile would dispel?
Would the hope, which thou once bad'st me cherish,
For torture repay me too well?
Now sad is the garden of roses,
Belovéd but false Haidée!
There Flora all withered reposes,
And mourns o'er thine absence with me.
Secure of his conquest before,
Thus thou, with those eyes for thy lances,
Hast pierced through my heart to its core.
Ah, tell me, my soul! must I perish
By pangs which a smile would dispel?
Would the hope, which thou once bad'st me cherish,
For torture repay me too well?
Now sad is the garden of roses,
Belovéd but false Haidée!
There Flora all withered reposes,
And mourns o'er thine absence with me.
1811.
The song from which this is taken is a great favourite with the young girls of Athens of all classes. Their manner of singing it is by verses in rotation, the whole number present joining in the chorus. I have heard it frequently at our “χοροι” in the winter of 1810–11. The air is plaintive and pretty.
ON PARTING.
1
The kiss, dear maid! thy lip has leftShall never part from mine,
Till happier hours restore the gift
Untainted back to thine.
2
Thy parting glance, which fondly beams,An equal love may see:
The tear that from thine eyelid streams
Can weep no change in me.
3
I ask no pledge to make me blestIn gazing when alone;
24
Whose thoughts are all thine own.
4
Nor need I write—to tell the taleMy pen were doubly weak:
Oh! what can idle words avail,
Unless the heart could speak?
5
By day or night, in weal or woe,That heart, no longer free,
Must bear the love it cannot show,
And silent ache for thee.
March, 1811.
FAREWELL TO MALTA.
Adieu, ye joys of La Valette!
Adieu, Sirocco, sun, and sweat!
Adieu, thou palace rarely entered!
Adieu, ye mansions where—I've ventured!
Adieu, ye curséd streets of stairs!
(How surely he who mounts them swears!)
Adieu, ye merchants often failing!
Adieu, thou mob for ever railing!
Adieu, ye packets—without letters!
Adieu, ye fools—who ape your betters!
Adieu, thou damned'st quarantine,
That gave me fever, and the spleen!
Adieu that stage which makes us yawn, Sirs,
Adieu his Excellency's dancers!
Adieu to Peter—whom no fault's in,
But could not teach a colonel waltzing;
Adieu, ye females fraught with graces!
Adieu red coats, and redder faces!
Adieu the supercilious air
Of all that strut en militaire!
I go—but God knows when, or why,
To smoky towns and cloudy sky,
To things (the honest truth to say)
As bad—but in a different way.
Adieu, Sirocco, sun, and sweat!
Adieu, thou palace rarely entered!
Adieu, ye mansions where—I've ventured!
Adieu, ye curséd streets of stairs!
(How surely he who mounts them swears!)
Adieu, ye merchants often failing!
Adieu, thou mob for ever railing!
25
Adieu, ye fools—who ape your betters!
Adieu, thou damned'st quarantine,
That gave me fever, and the spleen!
Adieu that stage which makes us yawn, Sirs,
Adieu his Excellency's dancers!
Adieu to Peter—whom no fault's in,
But could not teach a colonel waltzing;
Adieu, ye females fraught with graces!
Adieu red coats, and redder faces!
Adieu the supercilious air
Of all that strut en militaire!
I go—but God knows when, or why,
To smoky towns and cloudy sky,
To things (the honest truth to say)
As bad—but in a different way.
Farewell to these, but not adieu,
Triumphant sons of truest blue!
While either Adriatic shore,
And fallen chiefs, and fleets no more,
And nightly smiles, and daily dinners,
Proclaim you war and women's winners.
Pardon my Muse, who apt to prate is,
And take my rhyme—because 'tis “gratis.”
Triumphant sons of truest blue!
While either Adriatic shore,
And fallen chiefs, and fleets no more,
26
Proclaim you war and women's winners.
Pardon my Muse, who apt to prate is,
And take my rhyme—because 'tis “gratis.”
And now I've got to Mrs. Fraser,
Perhaps you think I mean to praise her—
And were I vain enough to think
My praise was worth this drop of ink,
A line—or two—were no hard matter,
As here, indeed, I need not flatter:
But she must be content to shine
In better praises than in mine,
With lively air, and open heart,
And fashion's ease, without its art;
Her hours can gaily glide along.
Nor ask the aid of idle song.
Perhaps you think I mean to praise her—
And were I vain enough to think
My praise was worth this drop of ink,
A line—or two—were no hard matter,
As here, indeed, I need not flatter:
But she must be content to shine
In better praises than in mine,
With lively air, and open heart,
And fashion's ease, without its art;
Her hours can gaily glide along.
Nor ask the aid of idle song.
And now, O Malta! since thou'st got us,
Thou little military hot-house!
I'll not offend with words uncivil,
And wish thee rudely at the Devil,
But only stare from out my casement,
And ask, “for what is such a place meant?”
Then, in my solitary nook,
Return to scribbling, or a book,
Or take my physic while I'm able
(Two spoonfuls hourly, by this label),
Prefer my nightcap to my beaver,
And bless my stars I've got a fever.
Thou little military hot-house!
I'll not offend with words uncivil,
And wish thee rudely at the Devil,
But only stare from out my casement,
And ask, “for what is such a place meant?”
Then, in my solitary nook,
Return to scribbling, or a book,
27
(Two spoonfuls hourly, by this label),
Prefer my nightcap to my beaver,
And bless my stars I've got a fever.
May 26, 1811.
NEWSTEAD ABBEY.
1
In the dome of my Sires as the clear moonbeam fallsThrough Silence and Shade o'er its desolate walls,
It shines from afar like the glories of old;
It gilds, but it warms not—'tis dazzling, but cold.
2
Let the Sunbeam be bright for the younger of days:'Tis the light that should shine on a race that decays,
When the Stars are on high and the dews on the ground,
And the long shadow lingers the ruin around.
3
And the step that o'erechoes the gray floor of stoneFalls sullenly now, for 'tis only my own;
And sunk are the voices that sounded in mirth,
And empty the goblet, and dreary the hearth.
4
And vain was each effort to raise and recallThe brightness of old to illumine our Hall;
And vain was the hope to avert our decline,
And the fate of my fathers had faded to mine.
28
5
And theirs was the wealth and the fulness of Fame,And mine to inherit too haughty a name;
And theirs were the times and the triumphs of yore,
And mine to regret, but renew them no more.
6
And Ruin is fixed on my tower and my wall,Too hoary to fade, and too massy to fall;
It tells not of Time's or the tempest's decay,
But the wreck of the line that have held it in sway.
August 26, 1811.
EPISTLE TO A FRIEND,
IN ANSWER TO SOME LINES EXHORTING THE AUTHOR TO BE CHEERFUL, AND TO “BANISH CARE.”
“Oh! banish care”—such ever be
The motto of thy revelry!
Perchance of mine, when wassail nights
Renew those riotous delights,
Wherewith the children of Despair
Lull the lone heart, and “banish care.”
But not in Morn's reflecting hour,
When present, past, and future lower,
When all I loved is changed or gone,
Mock with such taunts the woes of one,
Whose every thought—but let them pass—
Thou know'st I am not what I was.
But, above all, if thou wouldst hold
Place in a heart that ne'er was cold,
By all the powers that men revere,
By all unto thy bosom dear,
Thy joys below, thy hopes above,
Speak—speak of anything but Love.
The motto of thy revelry!
Perchance of mine, when wassail nights
Renew those riotous delights,
Wherewith the children of Despair
Lull the lone heart, and “banish care.”
But not in Morn's reflecting hour,
When present, past, and future lower,
When all I loved is changed or gone,
Mock with such taunts the woes of one,
29
Thou know'st I am not what I was.
But, above all, if thou wouldst hold
Place in a heart that ne'er was cold,
By all the powers that men revere,
By all unto thy bosom dear,
Thy joys below, thy hopes above,
Speak—speak of anything but Love.
'Twere long to tell, and vain to hear,
The tale of one who scorns a tear;
And there is little in that tale
Which better bosoms would bewail.
But mine has suffered more than well
'Twould suit philosophy to tell.
I've seen my bride another's bride,—
Have seen her seated by his side,—
Have seen the infant, which she bore,
Wear the sweet smile the mother wore,
When she and I in youth have smiled,
As fond and faultless as her child;—
Have seen her eyes, in cold disdain,
Ask if I felt no secret pain;
And I have acted well my part,
And made my cheek belie my heart,
Returned the freezing glance she gave,
Yet felt the while that woman's slave;—
Have kissed, as if without design,
The babe which ought to have been mine,
And showed, alas! in each caress
Time had not made me love the less.
The tale of one who scorns a tear;
And there is little in that tale
Which better bosoms would bewail.
But mine has suffered more than well
'Twould suit philosophy to tell.
I've seen my bride another's bride,—
Have seen her seated by his side,—
Have seen the infant, which she bore,
Wear the sweet smile the mother wore,
When she and I in youth have smiled,
As fond and faultless as her child;—
Have seen her eyes, in cold disdain,
Ask if I felt no secret pain;
And I have acted well my part,
And made my cheek belie my heart,
Returned the freezing glance she gave,
Yet felt the while that woman's slave;—
Have kissed, as if without design,
The babe which ought to have been mine,
And showed, alas! in each caress
Time had not made me love the less.
But let this pass—I'll whine no more,
Nor seek again an eastern shore;
The world befits a busy brain,—
I'll hie me to its haunts again.
But if, in some succeeding year,
When Britain's “May is in the sere,”
Thou hear'st of one, whose deepening crimes
Suit with the sablest of the times,
Of one, whom love nor pity sways,
Nor hope of fame, nor good men's praise;
One, who in stern Ambition's pride,
Perchance not blood shall turn aside;
One ranked in some recording page
With the worst anarchs of the age,
Him wilt thou know—and knowing pause,
Nor with the effect forget the cause.
Nor seek again an eastern shore;
30
I'll hie me to its haunts again.
But if, in some succeeding year,
When Britain's “May is in the sere,”
Thou hear'st of one, whose deepening crimes
Suit with the sablest of the times,
Of one, whom love nor pity sways,
Nor hope of fame, nor good men's praise;
One, who in stern Ambition's pride,
Perchance not blood shall turn aside;
One ranked in some recording page
With the worst anarchs of the age,
Him wilt thou know—and knowing pause,
Nor with the effect forget the cause.
Newstead Abbey, Oct. 11, 1811.
TO THYRZA.
Without a stone to mark the spot,And say, what Truth might well have said,
31
Ah! wherefore art thou lowly laid?
By many a shore and many a sea
Divided, yet beloved in vain;
32
To bid us meet—no—ne'er again!
33
That softly said, “We part in peace,”
Had taught my bosom how to brook,
With fainter sighs, thy soul's release.
And didst thou not, since Death for thee
Prepared a light and pangless dart,
Once long for him thou ne'er shalt see,
Who held, and holds thee in his heart?
Oh! who like him had watched thee here?
Or sadly marked thy glazing eye,
In that dread hour ere Death appear,
When silent Sorrow fears to sigh,
Till all was past? But when no more
'Twas thine to reck of human woe,
Affection's heart-drops, gushing o'er,
Had flowed as fast—as now they flow.
Shall they not flow, when many a day
In these, to me, deserted towers,
Ere called but for a time away,
Affection's mingling tears were ours?
Ours too the glance none saw beside;
The smile none else might understand;
The whispered thought of hearts allied,
The pressure of the thrilling hand;
The kiss, so guiltless and refined,
That Love each warmer wish forbore;
Those eyes proclaimed so pure a mind,
Ev'n Passion blushed to plead for more.
34
When prone, unlike thee, to repine;
The song, celestial from thy voice,
But sweet to me from none but thine;
The pledge we wore—I wear it still,
But where is thine?—Ah! where art thou?
Oft have I borne the weight of ill,
But never bent beneath till now!
Well hast thou left in Life's best bloom
The cup of Woe for me to drain.
If rest alone be in the tomb,
I would not wish thee here again:
But if in worlds more blest than this
Thy virtues seek a fitter sphere,
Impart some portion of thy bliss,
To wean me from mine anguish here.
Teach me—too early taught by thee!
To bear, forgiving and forgiven:
On earth thy love was such to me;
It fain would form my hope in Heaven!
October 11, 1811.
35
AWAY, AWAY, YE NOTES OF WOE!
1
Away, away, ye notes of Woe!Be silent, thou once soothing Strain,
Or I must flee from hence—for, oh!
I dare not trust those sounds again.
To me they speak of brighter days—
But lull the chords, for now, alas!
I must not think, I may not gaze,
On what I am—on what I was.
2
The voice that made those sounds more sweetIs hushed, and all their charms are fled;
And now their softest notes repeat
A dirge, an anthem o'er the dead!
Yes, Thyrza! yes, they breathe of thee,
Belovéd dust! since dust thou art;
And all that once was Harmony
Is worse than discord to my heart!
3
'Tis silent all!—but on my earThe well remembered Echoes thrill;
I hear a voice I would not hear,
A voice that now might well be still:
36
Ev'n Slumber owns its gentle tone,
Till Consciousness will vainly wake
To listen, though the dream be flown.
4
Sweet Thyrza! waking as in sleep,Thou art but now a lovely dream;
A Star that trembled o'er the deep,
Then turned from earth its tender beam.
But he who through Life's dreary way
Must pass, when Heaven is veiled in wrath,
Will long lament the vanished ray
That scattered gladness o'er his path.
December 8, 1811.
ONE STRUGGLE MORE, AND I AM FREE.
1
One struggle more, and I am freeFrom pangs that rend my heart in twain;
One last long sigh to Love and thee,
Then back to busy life again.
It suits me well to mingle now
With things that never pleased before:
Though every joy is fled below,
What future grief can touch me more?
37
2
Then bring me wine, the banquet bring;Man was not formed to live alone:
I'll be that light unmeaning thing
That smiles with all, and weeps with none.
It was not thus in days more dear,
It never would have been, but thou
Hast fled, and left me lonely here;
Thou'rt nothing,—all are nothing now.
3
In vain my lyre would lightly breathe!The smile that Sorrow fain would wear
But mocks the woe that lurks beneath,
Like roses o'er a sepulchre.
Though gay companions o'er the bowl
Dispel awhile the sense of ill;
Though Pleasure fires the maddening soul,
The Heart,—the Heart is lonely still!
4
On many a lone and lovely nightIt soothed to gaze upon the sky;
For then I deemed the heavenly light
Shone sweetly on thy pensive eye:
And oft I thought at Cynthia's noon,
When sailing o'er the Ægean wave,
“Now Thyrza gazes on that moon”—
Alas, it gleamed upon her grave!
5
When stretched on Fever's sleepless bed,And sickness shrunk my throbbing veins,
38
“That Thyrza cannot know my pains:”
Like freedom to the time-worn slave—
A boon 'tis idle then to give—
Relenting Nature vainly gave
My life, when Thyrza ceased to live!
6
My Thyrza's pledge in better days,When Love and Life alike were new!
How different now thou meet'st my gaze!
How tinged by time with Sorrow's hue!
The heart that gave itself with thee
Is silent—ah, were mine as still!
Though cold as e'en the dead can be,
It feels, it sickens with the chill.
7
Thou bitter pledge! thou mournful token!Though painful, welcome to my breast!
Still, still, preserve that love unbroken,
Or break the heart to which thou'rt pressed.
Time tempers Love, but not removes,
More hallowed when its Hope is fled:
Oh! what are thousand living loves
To that which cannot quit the dead?
39
EUTHANASIA.
1
When Time, or soon or late, shall bringThe dreamless sleep that lulls the dead,
Oblivion! may thy languid wing
Wave gently o'er my dying bed!
2
No band of friends or heirs be there,To weep, or wish, the coming blow:
No maiden, with dishevelled hair,
To feel, or feign, decorous woe.
3
But silent let me sink to Earth,With no officious mourners near:
I would not mar one hour of mirth,
Nor startle Friendship with a fear.
4
Yet Love, if Love in such an hourCould nobly check its useless sighs,
Might then exert its latest power
In her who lives, and him who dies.
5
'Twere sweet, my Psyche! to the lastThy features still serene to see:
40
E'en Pain itself should smile on thee.
6
But vain the wish—for Beauty stillWill shrink, as shrinks the ebbing breath;
And Woman's tears, produced at will,
Deceive in life, unman in death.
7
Then lonely be my latest hour,Without regret, without a groan;
For thousands Death hath ceased to lower,
And pain been transient or unknown.
8
“Aye but to die, and go,” alas!Where all have gone, and all must go!
To be the nothing that I was
Ere born to life and living woe!
9
Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen,Count o'er thy days from anguish free,
And know, whatever thou hast been,
'Tis something better not to be.
41
AND THOU ART DEAD, AS YOUNG AND FAIR.
“Heu, quanto minus est cum reliquis versari quam tui meminisse!”
1
And thou art dead, as young and fairAs aught of mortal birth;
And form so soft, and charms so rare,
Too soon returned to Earth!
Though Earth received them in her bed,
And o'er the spot the crowd may tread
In carelessness or mirth,
There is an eye which could not brook
A moment on that grave to look.
42
2
I will not ask where thou liest low,Nor gaze upon the spot;
There flowers or weeds at will may grow,
So I behold them not:
It is enough for me to prove
That what I loved, and long must love,
Like common earth can rot;
To me there needs no stone to tell,
'Tis Nothing that I loved so well.
3
Yet did I love thee to the lastAs fervently as thou,
Who didst not change through all the past,
And canst not alter now.
The love where Death has set his seal,
Nor age can chill, nor rival steal,
Nor falsehood disavow:
And, what were worse, thou canst not see
Or wrong, or change, or fault in me.
4
The better days of life were ours;The worst can be but mine:
43
Shall never more be thine.
The silence of that dreamless sleep
I envy now too much to weep;
Nor need I to repine,
That all those charms have passed away
I might have watched through long decay.
5
The flower in ripened bloom unmatchedMust fall the earliest prey;
Though by no hand untimely snatched,
The leaves must drop away:
And yet it were a greater grief
To watch it withering, leaf by leaf,
Than see it plucked to-day;
Since earthly eye but ill can bear
To trace the change to foul from fair.
6
I know not if I could have borneTo see thy beauties fade;
The night that followed such a morn
Had worn a deeper shade:
Thy day without a cloud hath passed,
And thou wert lovely to the last;
Extinguished, not decayed;
44
Shine brightest as they fall from high.
7
As once I wept, if I could weep,My tears might well be shed,
To think I was not near to keep
One vigil o'er thy bed;
To gaze, how fondly! on thy face,
To fold thee in a faint embrace,
Uphold thy drooping head;
And show that love, however vain,
Nor thou nor I can feel again.
8
Yet how much less it were to gain,Though thou hast left me free,
The loveliest things that still remain,
Than thus remember thee!
The all of thine that cannot die
Through dark and dread Eternity
Returns again to me,
And more thy buried love endears
Than aught, except its living years.
February, 1812.
45
LINES TO A LADY WEEPING.
Weep, daughter of a royal line,A Sire's disgrace, a realm's decay;
Ah! happy if each tear of thine
Could wash a Father's fault away!
46
Auspicious to these suffering Isles;
And be each drop in future years
Repaid thee by thy People's smiles!
March, 1812.
IF SOMETIMES IN THE HAUNTS OF MEN.
1
If sometimes in the haunts of menThine image from my breast may fade,
The lonely hour presents again
The semblance of thy gentle shade:
And now that sad and silent hour
Thus much of thee can still restore,
And sorrow unobserved may pour
The plaint she dare not speak before.
47
2
Oh, pardon that in crowds awhileI waste one thought I owe to thee,
And self-condemned, appear to smile,
Unfaithful to thy memory:
Nor deem that memory less dear,
That then I seem not to repine;
I would not fools should overhear
One sigh that should be wholly thine.
3
If not the Goblet pass unquaffed,It is not drained to banish care;
The cup must hold a deadlier draught
That brings a Lethe for despair.
And could Oblivion set my soul
From all her troubled visions free,
I'd dash to earth the sweetest bowl
That drowned a single thought of thee.
4
For wert thou vanished from my mind,Where could my vacant bosom turn?
And who would then remain behind
To honour thine abandoned Urn?
No, no—it is my sorrow's pride
That last dear duty to fulfil;
Though all the world forget beside,
'Tis meet that I remember still.
5
For well I know, that such had beenThy gentle care for him, who now
48
Where none regarded him, but thou:
And, oh! I feel in that was given
A blessing never meant for me;
Thou wert too like a dream of Heaven,
For earthly Love to merit thee.
March 14, 1812.
ON A CORNELIAN HEART WHICH WAS BROKEN.
1
Ill-fated Heart! and can it be,That thou shouldst thus be rent in twain?
Have years of care for thine and thee
Alike been all employed in vain?
2
Yet precious seems each shattered part,And every fragment dearer grown,
Since he who wears thee feels thou art
A fitter emblem of his own.
March 16, 1812.
49
THE CHAIN I GAVE.
1
The chain I gave was fair to view,The lute I added sweet in sound;
The heart that offered both was true,
And ill deserved the fate it found.
2
These gifts were charmed by secret spell,Thy truth in absence to divine;
And they have done their duty well,—
Alas! they could not teach thee thine.
3
That chain was firm in every link,But not to bear a stranger's touch;
That lute was sweet—till thou couldst think
In other hands its notes were such.
4
Let him who from thy neck unboundThe chain which shivered in his grasp,
Who saw that lute refuse to sound,
Restring the chords, renew the clasp.
5
When thou wert changed, they altered too;The chain is broke, the music mute,
'Tis past—to them and thee adieu—
False heart, frail chain, and silent lute.
50
LINES WRITTEN ON A BLANK LEAF OF THE PLEASURES OF MEMORY.
1
Absent or present, still to thee,My friend, what magic spells belong!
As all can tell, who share, like me,
In turn thy converse, and thy song.
2
But when the dreaded hour shall comeBy Friendship ever deemed too nigh,
And “Memory” o'er her Druid's tomb
Shall weep that aught of thee can die,
3
How fondly will she then repayThy homage offered at her shrine,
And blend, while ages roll away,
Her name immortally with thine!
April 19, 1812.
51
ADDRESS, SPOKEN AT THE OPENING OF DRURY-LANE THEATRE, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1812.
In one dread night our city saw, and sighed,
Bowed to the dust, the Drama's tower of pride;
In one short hour beheld the blazing fane,
Apollo sink, and Shakespeare cease to reign.
Bowed to the dust, the Drama's tower of pride;
In one short hour beheld the blazing fane,
Apollo sink, and Shakespeare cease to reign.
Ye who beheld, (oh! sight admired and mourned,
Whose radiance mocked the ruin it adorned!)
Through clouds of fire the massy fragments riven,
Like Israel's pillar, chase the night from heaven;
Saw the long column of revolving flames
Shake its red shadow o'er the startled Thames,
While thousands, thronged around the burning dome,
Shrank back appalled, and trembled for their home,
As glared the volumed blaze, and ghastly shone
The skies, with lightnings awful as their own,
Till blackening ashes and the lonely wall
Usurped the Muse's realm, and marked her fall;
Say—shall this new, nor less aspiring pile,
Reared where once rose the mightiest in our isle,
Know the same favour which the former knew,
A shrine for Shakespeare—worthy him and you?
Whose radiance mocked the ruin it adorned!)
Through clouds of fire the massy fragments riven,
Like Israel's pillar, chase the night from heaven;
Saw the long column of revolving flames
Shake its red shadow o'er the startled Thames,
While thousands, thronged around the burning dome,
Shrank back appalled, and trembled for their home,
As glared the volumed blaze, and ghastly shone
52
Till blackening ashes and the lonely wall
Usurped the Muse's realm, and marked her fall;
Say—shall this new, nor less aspiring pile,
Reared where once rose the mightiest in our isle,
Know the same favour which the former knew,
A shrine for Shakespeare—worthy him and you?
Yes—it shall be—the magic of that name
Defies the scythe of time, the torch of flame;
On the same spot still consecrates the scene,
And bids the Drama be where she hath been:
This fabric's birth attests the potent spell—
Indulge our honest pride, and say, How well!
Defies the scythe of time, the torch of flame;
On the same spot still consecrates the scene,
And bids the Drama be where she hath been:
This fabric's birth attests the potent spell—
Indulge our honest pride, and say, How well!
As soars this fane to emulate the last,
Oh! might we draw our omens from the past,
Some hour propitious to our prayers may boast
Names such as hallow still the dome we lost.
On Drury first your Siddons' thrilling art
O'erwhelmed the gentlest, stormed the sternest heart.
On Drury, Garrick's latest laurels grew;
Here your last tears retiring Roscius drew,
Sighed his last thanks, and wept his last adieu:
But still for living wit the wreaths may bloom,
That only waste their odours o'er the tomb.
Such Drury claimed and claims—nor you refuse
One tribute to revive his slumbering muse;
With garlands deck your own Menander's head,
Nor hoard your honours idly for the dead!
Dear are the days which made our annals bright,
Ere Garrick fled, or Brinsley ceased to write.
Heirs to their labours, like all high-born heirs,
Vain of our ancestry as they of theirs;
While thus Remembrance borrows Banquo's glass
To claim the sceptred shadows as they pass,
And we the mirror hold, where imaged shine
Immortal names, emblazoned on our line,
Pause—ere their feebler offspring you condemn,
Reflect how hard the task to rival them!
Oh! might we draw our omens from the past,
Some hour propitious to our prayers may boast
Names such as hallow still the dome we lost.
On Drury first your Siddons' thrilling art
O'erwhelmed the gentlest, stormed the sternest heart.
On Drury, Garrick's latest laurels grew;
Here your last tears retiring Roscius drew,
Sighed his last thanks, and wept his last adieu:
But still for living wit the wreaths may bloom,
53
Such Drury claimed and claims—nor you refuse
One tribute to revive his slumbering muse;
With garlands deck your own Menander's head,
Nor hoard your honours idly for the dead!
Dear are the days which made our annals bright,
Ere Garrick fled, or Brinsley ceased to write.
Heirs to their labours, like all high-born heirs,
Vain of our ancestry as they of theirs;
While thus Remembrance borrows Banquo's glass
To claim the sceptred shadows as they pass,
And we the mirror hold, where imaged shine
Immortal names, emblazoned on our line,
Pause—ere their feebler offspring you condemn,
Reflect how hard the task to rival them!
Friends of the stage! to whom both Players and Plays
Must sue alike for pardon or for praise,
Whose judging voice and eye alone direct
The boundless power to cherish or reject;
If e'er frivolity has led to fame,
And made us blush that you forbore to blame—
If e'er the sinking stage could condescend
To soothe the sickly taste it dare not mend—
All past reproach may present scenes refute,
And censure, wisely loud, be justly mute!
Oh! since your fiat stamps the Drama's laws,
Forbear to mock us with misplaced applause;
So Pride shall doubly nerve the actor's powers,
And Reason's voice be echoed back by ours!
Must sue alike for pardon or for praise,
54
The boundless power to cherish or reject;
If e'er frivolity has led to fame,
And made us blush that you forbore to blame—
If e'er the sinking stage could condescend
To soothe the sickly taste it dare not mend—
All past reproach may present scenes refute,
And censure, wisely loud, be justly mute!
Oh! since your fiat stamps the Drama's laws,
Forbear to mock us with misplaced applause;
So Pride shall doubly nerve the actor's powers,
And Reason's voice be echoed back by ours!
This greeting o'er—the ancient rule obeyed,
The Drama's homage by her herald paid—
Receive our welcome too—whose every tone
Springs from our hearts, and fain would win your own.
The curtain rises—may our stage unfold
Scenes not unworthy Drury's days of old!
Britons our judges, Nature for our guide,
Still may we please—long, long may you preside.
The Drama's homage by her herald paid—
55
Springs from our hearts, and fain would win your own.
The curtain rises—may our stage unfold
Scenes not unworthy Drury's days of old!
Britons our judges, Nature for our guide,
Still may we please—long, long may you preside.
PARENTHETICAL ADDRESS.
BY DR. PLAGIARY.
[_]
Half stolen, with acknowledgments, to be spoken in an inarticulate voice by Master — at the opening of the next new theatre.
“When energising objects men pursue,”
Then Lord knows what is writ by Lord knows who.
A modest Monologue you here survey,
Hissed from the theatre the “other day,”
As if Sir Fretful wrote “the slumberous” verse,
And gave his son “the rubbish” to rehearse.
“Yet at the thing you'd never be amazed,”
Knew you the rumpus which the Author raised;
“Nor even here your smiles would be represt,”
Knew you these lines—the badness of the best,
“Flame! fire! and flame!” (words borrowed from Lucretius.)
“Dread metaphors” which open wounds like issues!
“And sleeping pangs awake—and— But away”—
(Confound me if I know what next to say).
Lo “Hope reviving re-expands her wings,”
And Master G— recites what Dr. Busby sings!—
“If mighty things with small we may compare,”
(Translated from the Grammar for the fair!)
Dramatic “spirit drives a conquering car,”
And burn'd poor Moscow like a tub of “tar.”
“This spirit” “Wellington has shown in Spain,”
To furnish Melodrames for Drury Lane.
“Another Marlborough points to Blenheim's story,”
And George and I will dramatise it for ye.
Then Lord knows what is writ by Lord knows who.
56
Hissed from the theatre the “other day,”
57
And gave his son “the rubbish” to rehearse.
“Yet at the thing you'd never be amazed,”
Knew you the rumpus which the Author raised;
“Nor even here your smiles would be represt,”
Knew you these lines—the badness of the best,
“Flame! fire! and flame!” (words borrowed from Lucretius.)
“Dread metaphors” which open wounds like issues!
“And sleeping pangs awake—and— But away”—
(Confound me if I know what next to say).
Lo “Hope reviving re-expands her wings,”
And Master G— recites what Dr. Busby sings!—
“If mighty things with small we may compare,”
(Translated from the Grammar for the fair!)
Dramatic “spirit drives a conquering car,”
And burn'd poor Moscow like a tub of “tar.”
“This spirit” “Wellington has shown in Spain,”
To furnish Melodrames for Drury Lane.
“Another Marlborough points to Blenheim's story,”
And George and I will dramatise it for ye.
“In Arts and Sciences our Isle hath shone”
(This deep discovery is mine alone).
Oh “British poesy, whose powers inspire”
My verse—or I'm a fool—and Fame's a liar,
“Thee we invoke, your Sister Arts implore”
With “smiles,” and “lyres,” and “pencils,” and much more.
These, if we win the Graces, too, we gain
Disgraces, too! “inseparable train!”
“Three who have stolen their witching airs from Cupid”
(You all know what I mean, unless you're stupid):
“Harmonious throng” that I have kept in petto
Now to produce in a “divine sestetto”!!
“While Poesy,” with these delightful doxies,
“Sustains her part” in all the “upper” boxes!
“Thus lifted gloriously, you'll sweep along,”
Borne in the vast balloon of Busby's song;
“Shine in your farce, masque, scenery, and play”
(For this last line George had a holiday).
“Old Drury never, never soar'd so high,”
So says the Manager, and so say I.
“But hold,” you say, “this self-complacent boast;”
Is this the Poem which the public lost?
“True—true—that lowers at once our mounting pride;”
But lo;—the Papers print what you deride.
“'Tis ours to look on you—you hold the prize,”
'Tis twenty guineas, as they advertise!
“A double blessing your rewards impart”—
I wish I had them, then, with all my heart.
“Our twofold feeling owns its twofold cause,”
Why son and I both beg for your applause.
“When in your fostering beams you bid us live,”
My next subscription list shall say how much you give!
(This deep discovery is mine alone).
58
My verse—or I'm a fool—and Fame's a liar,
“Thee we invoke, your Sister Arts implore”
With “smiles,” and “lyres,” and “pencils,” and much more.
These, if we win the Graces, too, we gain
Disgraces, too! “inseparable train!”
“Three who have stolen their witching airs from Cupid”
(You all know what I mean, unless you're stupid):
“Harmonious throng” that I have kept in petto
Now to produce in a “divine sestetto”!!
“While Poesy,” with these delightful doxies,
“Sustains her part” in all the “upper” boxes!
“Thus lifted gloriously, you'll sweep along,”
Borne in the vast balloon of Busby's song;
“Shine in your farce, masque, scenery, and play”
(For this last line George had a holiday).
“Old Drury never, never soar'd so high,”
So says the Manager, and so say I.
“But hold,” you say, “this self-complacent boast;”
Is this the Poem which the public lost?
“True—true—that lowers at once our mounting pride;”
But lo;—the Papers print what you deride.
“'Tis ours to look on you—you hold the prize,”
'Tis twenty guineas, as they advertise!
“A double blessing your rewards impart”—
I wish I had them, then, with all my heart.
“Our twofold feeling owns its twofold cause,”
Why son and I both beg for your applause.
“When in your fostering beams you bid us live,”
My next subscription list shall say how much you give!
59
VERSES FOUND IN A SUMMER-HOUSE AT HALES-OWEN.
When Dryden's fool, “unknowing what he sought,”His hours in whistling spent, “for want of thought,”
This guiltless oaf his vacancy of sense
Supplied, and amply too, by innocence:
Did modern swains, possessed of Cymon's powers,
In Cymon's manner waste their leisure hours,
Th' offended guests would not, with blushing, see
These fair green walks disgraced by infamy.
Severe the fate of modern fools, alas!
When vice and folly mark them as they pass.
Like noxious reptiles o'er the whitened wall,
The filth they leave still points out where they crawl.
REMEMBER THEE! REMEMBER THEE!
1
Remember thee! remember thee!Till Lethe quench life's burning stream
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And haunt thee like a feverish dream!
2
Remember thee! Aye, doubt it not.Thy husband too shall think of thee:
By neither shalt thou be forgot,
Thou false to him, thou fiend to me!
TO TIME.
Time! on whose arbitrary wingThe varying hours must flag or fly,
Whose tardy winter, fleeting spring,
But drag or drive us on to die—
Hail thou! who on my birth bestowed
Those boons to all that know thee known;
Yet better I sustain thy load,
For now I bear the weight alone.
I would not one fond heart should share
The bitter moments thou hast given;
And pardon thee-since thou couldst spare
All that I loved, to peace or Heaven.
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Thy future ills shall press in vain;
I nothing owe but years to thee,
A debt already paid in pain.
Yet even that pain was some relief;
It felt, but still forgot thy power:
The active agony of grief
Retards, but never counts the hour.
In joy I've sighed to think thy flight
Would soon subside from swift to slow;
Thy cloud could overcast the light,
But could not add a night to Woe;
For then, however drear and dark,
My soul was suited to thy sky;
One star alone shot forth a spark
To prove thee—not Eternity.
That beam hath sunk—and now thou art
A blank—a thing to count and curse
Through each dull tedious trifling part,
Which all regret, yet all rehearse.
One scene even thou canst not deform—
The limit of thy sloth or speed
When future wanderers bear the storm
Which we shall sleep too sound to heed.
And I can smile to think how weak
Thine efforts shortly shall be shown,
When all the vengeance thou canst wreak
Must fall upon—a nameless stone.
62
TRANSLATION OF A ROMAIC LOVE SONG.
1
Ah! Love was never yet withoutThe pang, the agony, the doubt,
Which rends my heart with ceaseless sigh,
While day and night roll darkling by.
2
Without one friend to hear my woe,I faint, I die beneath the blow.
That Love had arrows, well I knew,
Alas! I find them poisoned too.
3
Birds, yet in freedom, shun the netWhich Love around your haunts hath set;
Or, circled by his fatal fire,
Your hearts shall burn, your hopes expire.
4
A bird of free and careless wingWas I, through many a smiling spring;
But caught within the subtle snare,
I burn, and feebly flutter there.
5
Who ne'er have loved, and loved in vain,Can neither feel nor pity pain,
The cold repulse, the look askance,
The lightning of Love's angry glance.
6
In flattering dreams I deemed thee mine;Now hope, and he who hoped, decline;
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I feel my passion, and thy power.
7
My light of Life! ah, tell me whyThat pouting lip, and altered eye?
My bird of Love! my beauteous mate!
And art thou changed, and canst thou hate?
8
Mine eyes like wintry streams o'erflow:What wretch with me would barter woe?
My bird! relent: one note could give
A charm to bid thy lover live.
9
My curdling blood, my madd'ning brain,In silent anguish I sustain;
And still thy heart, without partaking
One pang, exults—while mine is breaking.
10
Pour me the poison; fear not thou!Thou canst not murder more than now:
I've lived to curse my natal day,
And Love, that thus can lingering slay.
11
My wounded soul, my bleeding breast,Can patience preach thee into rest?
Alas! too late, I dearly know
That Joy is harbinger of Woe.
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THOU ART NOT FALSE, BUT THOU ART FICKLE.
1
Thou art not false, but thou art fickle,To those thyself so fondly sought;
The tears that thou hast forced to trickle
Are doubly bitter from that thought:
'Tis this which breaks the heart thou grievest,
Too well thou lov'st—too soon thou leavest.
2
The wholly false the heart despises,And spurns deceiver and deceit;
But she who not a thought disguises,
Whose love is as sincere as sweet,—
When she can change who loved so truly,
It feels what mine has felt so newly.
3
To dream of joy and wake to sorrowIs doomed to all who love or live;
And if, when conscious on the morrow,
We scarce our Fancy can forgive,
That cheated us in slumber only,
To leave the waking soul more lonely,
4
What must they feel whom no false visionBut truest, tenderest Passion warmed?
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As if a dream alone had charmed?
Ah! sure such grief is Fancy's scheming,
And all thy Change can be but dreaming!
ON BEING ASKED WHAT WAS THE “ORIGIN OF LOVE.”
The “Origin of Love!”—Ah, whyThat cruel question ask of me,
When thou mayst read in many an eye
He starts to life on seeing thee?
And shouldst thou seek his end to know:
My heart forebodes, my fears foresee,
He'll linger long in silent woe;
But live until—I cease to be.
ON THE QUOTATION,
“And my true faith can alter never,
Though thou art gone perhaps for ever.”
1
And “thy true faith can alter never?”—Indeed it lasted for a—week!
I know the length of Love's forever,
And just expected such a freak.
In peace we met, in peace we parted,
In peace we vowed to meet again,
And though I find thee fickle-hearted
No pang of mine shall make thee vain.
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2
One gone—'twas time to seek a second;In sooth 'twere hard to blame thy haste.
And whatsoe'er thy love be reckoned,
At least thou hast improved in taste:
Though one was young, the next was younger,
His love was new, mine too well known—
And what might make the charm still stronger,
The youth was present, I was flown.
3
Seven days and nights of single sorrow!Too much for human constancy!
A fortnight past, why then to-morrow,
His turn is come to follow me:
And if each week you change a lover,
And so have acted heretofore,
Before a year or two is over
We'll form a very pretty corps.
4
Adieu, fair thing! without upbraidingI fain would take a decent leave;
Thy beauty still survives unfading,
And undeceived may long deceive.
With him unto thy bosom dearer
Enjoy the moments as they flee;
I only wish his love sincerer
Than thy young heart has been to me.
1812.
67
REMEMBER HIM, WHOM PASSION'S POWER.
1
Remember him, whom Passion's powerSeverely—deeply—vainly proved:
Remember thou that dangerous hour,
When neither fell, though both were loved.
2
That yielding breast, that melting eye,Too much invited to be blessed:
That gentle prayer, that pleading sigh,
The wilder wish reproved, repressed.
3
Oh! let me feel that all I lostBut saved thee all that Conscience fears;
And blush for every pang it cost
To spare the vain remorse of years.
4
Yet think of this when many a tongue,Whose busy accents whisper blame,
Would do the heart that loved thee wrong,
And brand a nearly blighted name.
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5
Think that, whate'er to others, thouHast seen each selfish thought subdued:
I bless thy purer soul even now,
Even now, in midnight solitude.
6
Oh, God! that we had met in time,Our hearts as fond, thy hand more free;
When thou hadst loved without a crime,
And I been less unworthy thee!
7
Far may thy days, as heretofore,From this our gaudy world be past!
And that too bitter moment o'er,
Oh! may such trial be thy last.
8
This heart, alas! perverted long,Itself destroyed might there destroy;
To meet thee in the glittering throng,
Would wake Presumption's hope of joy.
9
Then to the things whose bliss or woe,Like mine, is wild and worthless all,
That world resign—such scenes forego,
Where those who feel must surely fall.
10
Thy youth, thy charms, thy tenderness—Thy soul from long seclusion pure;
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What there thy bosom must endure.
11
Oh! pardon that imploring tear,Since not by Virtue shed in vain,
My frenzy drew from eyes so dear;
For me they shall not weep again.
12
Though long and mournful must it be,The thought that we no more may meet;
Yet I deserve the stern decree,
And almost deem the sentence sweet.
13
Still—had I loved thee less—my heartHad then less sacrificed to thine;
It felt not half so much to part
As if its guilt had made thee mine.
1813.
IMPROMPTU, IN REPLY TO A FRIEND.
When, from the heart where Sorrow sits,Her dusky shadow mounts too high,
70
And clouds the brow, or fills the eye;
Heed not that gloom, which soon shall sink:
My Thoughts their dungeon know too well;
Back to my breast the Wanderers shrink,
And droop within their silent cell.
September, 1813.
SONNET.
TO GENEVRA.
Thine eyes' blue tenderness, thy long fair hair,And the warm lustre of thy features—caught
From contemplation—where serenely wrought,
Seems Sorrow's softness charmed from its despair—
Have thrown such speaking sadness in thine air,
That—but I know thy blessed bosom fraught
With mines of unalloyed and stainless thought—
I should have deemed thee doomed to earthly care.
With such an aspect, by his colours blent,
When from his beauty-breathing pencil born,
(Except that thou hast nothing to repent)
The Magdalen of Guido saw the morn—
Such seem'st thou—but how much more excellent!
With nought Remorse can claim—nor Virtue scorn.
December 17, 1813.
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SONNET.
TO GENEVRA.
Thy cheek is pale with thought, but not from woe,And yet so lovely, that if Mirth could flush
Its rose of whiteness with the brightest blush,
My heart would wish away that ruder glow:
And dazzle not thy deep-blue eyes—but, oh!
While gazing on them sterner eyes will gush,
And into mine my mother's weakness rush,
Soft as the last drops round Heaven's airy bow.
For, through thy long dark lashes low depending,
The soul of melancholy Gentleness
Gleams like a Seraph from the sky descending,
Above all pain, yet pitying all distress;
At once such majesty with sweetness blending,
I worship more, but cannot love thee less.
December 17, 1813.
FROM THE PORTUGUESE.
“TU MI CHAMAS.”
1
In moments to delight devoted,“My Life!” with tenderest tone, you cry;
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If Youth could neither fade nor die.
2
To Death even hours like these must roll,Ah! then repeat those accents never;
Or change “my Life!” into “my Soul!”
Which, like my Love, exists for ever.
ANOTHER VERSION.
You call me still your Life.—Oh! change the word—
Life is as transient as the inconstant sigh:
Say rather I'm your Soul; more just that name,
For, like the soul, my Love can never die.
Life is as transient as the inconstant sigh:
Say rather I'm your Soul; more just that name,
For, like the soul, my Love can never die.
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