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The works of Lord Byron

A new, revised and enlarged edition, with illustrations. Edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge and R. E. Prothero
Byron, George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)

expand sectionI. 
Vol. I. HOURS OF IDLENESS AND OTHER EARLY POEMS.
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Vol. II.
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Vol. III.
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Vol. IV.
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Vol. V.
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SARDANAPALUS:
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THE TWO FOSCARI:
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CAIN:
  
[epigraph]
  
[dedication]
  
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.
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ACT I.
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ACT II.
 I. 
Scene I.
 II. 
Scene II.
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ACT III.
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HEAVEN AND EARTH;
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WERNER;
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WERNER.
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THE DEFORMED TRANSFORMED:
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THE AGE OF BRONZE;
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THE ISLAND;
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[volume]

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70

LINES ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG LADY.

[_]

[AS THE AUTHOR WAS DISCHARGING HIS PISTOLS IN A GARDEN, TWO LADIES PASSING NEAR THE SPOT WERE ALARMED BY THE SOUND OF A BULLET HISSING NEAR THEM, TO ONE OF WHOM THE FOLLOWING STANZAS WERE ADDRESSED THE NEXT MORNING.]

1

Doubtless, sweet girl! the hissing lead,
Wafting destruction o'er thy charms
And hurtling o'er thy lovely head,
Has fill'd that breast with fond alarms.

2

Surely some envious Demon's force,
Vex'd to behold such beauty here,
Impell'd the bullet's viewless course,
Diverted from its first career.
71

3

Yes! in that nearly fatal hour,
The ball obey'd some hell-born guide;
But Heaven, with interposing power,
In pity turn'd the death aside.

4

Yet, as perchance one trembling tear
Upon that thrilling bosom fell;
Which I, th' unconscious cause of fear,
Extracted from its glistening cell;—

5

Say, what dire penance can atone
For such an outrage, done to thee?
Arraign'd before thy beauty's throne,
What punishment wilt thou decree?

6

Might I perform the Judge's part,
The sentence I should scarce deplore;
It only would restore a heart,
Which but belong'd to thee before.

7

The least atonement I can make
Is to become no longer free;
Henceforth, I breathe but for thy sake,
Thou shalt be all in all to me.
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8

But thou, perhaps, may'st now reject
Such expiation of my guilt;
Come then—some other mode elect?
Let it be death—or what thou wilt.

9

Choose, then, relentless! and I swear
Nought shall thy dread decree prevent;
Yet hold—one little word forbear!
Let it be aught but banishment.
 

This word is used by Gray in his poem to the Fatal Sisters:—

“Iron-sleet of arrowy shower
Hurtles in the darken'd air.”

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