Baron George Gordon Byron Byron

“ And think that love can ne'er be true.
7.
Which meets me with no joyous sign,
Without a sigh which bids adieu;
How different is my love from thine,
How keen my grief when leaving you.
[pg 9]
8.
Your image fills my anxious breast,
Till day declines adown the West,
And when, at night, I sink to rest,
In dreams your fancied form I view.
9.
'Tis then your breast, no longer cold,
With equal ardour seems to burn,
While close your arms around me fold,
Your lips my kiss with warmth return.
10.
Ah! would these joyous moments last;
Vain HOPE! the gay delusions past,
That voice!—ah! ”

“ My bosom still esteems you dearly.
7.
No more we meet in yonder bowers,
Perhaps my soul's too prone to roving,
But older, firmer hearts than ours,
Have found monotony in loving.
8.
Your cheeks soft bloom is unimpair'd,
Your beauties still are daily bright'ning,
Your eye for conquest comes prepar'd,
The forge of love's resistless lightning.
[pg 38]
9.
Arm'd thus to make their bosoms bleed,
Many will throng to sigh like me, love,
More constant they may prove indeed,
Fonder alas! they ne'er can be, love! ”

“ No more that bosom heaves for me,
On it another seeks repose,
Another riot's on its snows,
Our bonds are broken, both are free.
5.
No more with mutual love we burn,
No more the genial couch we bless,
Dissolving in the fond caress;
Our love o'erthrown will ne'er return.
[pg 18]
6.
Though love than ours could ne'er be truer,
Yet flames too fierce themselves destroy,
Embraces oft repeated cloy,
Ours came too frequent, to endure. ”

“ Tho' I ne'er shall presume to arraign the decree;
Which God has proclaim'd as the fate of his creatures,
In the death which one day will deprive me of thee.
5.
No jargon of priests o'er our union was mutter'd,
To rivet the fetters of husband and wife;
By our lips, by our hearts, were our vows alone utter'd,
To perform them, in full, would ask more than a life.
6.
But as death my belov'd, soon or late, shall o'ertake us,
And our breasts which alive with such sympathy glow,
Will sleep in the grave, till the blast shall awake us,
When calling the dead, in earth's bosom laid low. ”

“ Yet woman and man ne'er were meant to dissever,
Our chains once dissolv'd, and our hearts unconfin'd,
We'll love without bonds, but we'll love you forever.
10.
Though souls are denied you by fools and by rakes,
Should you own it yourselves, I would even then doubt you,
Your nature so much of celestial partakes,
The Garden of Eden would wither without you.
SOUTHWELL, October 9, 1806.
[pg 43]
The TEAR. 1.
When Friendship or Love,
Our sympathies move,
When Truth in a glance should appear,
The lips may beguile,
With a dimple or smile,
But the test of affection's a tear. ”

“ The dictate of my bosom's care:
"May Heaven so guard my lovely quaker,
"That anguish never can o'ertake her;
"That peace and virtue ne'er forsake her,
"But bliss be aye, her heart's partaker:
"No jealous passion shall invade,
"No envy that pure breast pervade;"
For he that revels in such charms,
Can never seek another's arms ”

“ The lips which made me Beauty's slave.
3.
Here I can trace—ah no! that eye,
Whose azure floats in liquid fire,
[pg 29]
Must all the painter's art defy,
And bid him from the task retire.
4.
Here I behold, its beauteous hue,
But where's the beam of soft desire?
Which gave a lustre to its blue,
Love, only love, could e'er inspire.
5.
Sweet copy! far more dear to me,
Lifeless, unfeeling as thou art,
Than all the living forms could be,
Save her, who plac'd thee next my heart. ”

“ From my eye flows no tear, from my lips fall 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—
3. ”

“ BYRON, October 26, 1806.
REPLY TO SOME VERSES OF J.M.B. PIGOT, Esq. ON THE CRUELTY OF HIS MISTRESS. 1.
Why PIGOT, complain,
Of this damsel's disdain,
Why thus in despair, do you fret?
For months you may try,
But believe me a sigh,
Will never obtain a coquette.
2.
Would you teach her to love,
For a time seem to rove,
[pg 47]
At first she may frown in a pet;
But leave her awhile,
She shortly will smile,
And then you may kiss your coquette.
3.
For such are the airs,
Of these fanciful fairs,
They think all our homage a debt ”

“ He too is dead! who still our England propp'd,
With him our fast reviving hopes have dropp'd;
Not one great people only raise his urn,
All Europe's far extended regions mourn.
"These feelings wide, let Sense and Truth unclue,
"And give the palm where Justice points it due;" ”

“ New courage, he'll think upon glory, and you.
Though a tear dims his eye at this sad separation,
'Tis nature, not fear, which commands his regret;
Far distant he goes with the same emulation,
In the grave, he alone can his fathers forget.
Your fame, and your memory, still will he cherish,
He vows that he ne'er will disgrace your renown;
[pg 3]
Like you will he live, or like you will he perish,
When decay'd, may he mingle his dust with your own.
1803.
Footnote 1: (return)
Horiston Castle, in Derbyshire, an ancient seat of the B—r—n family. ”

“ Of kissing I ne'er was so fond,
As to make me forget,
Though our lips oft have met,
That still there was something beyond.
9.
And if I should shun,
Every woman for one,
Whose image must fill my whole breast ”

“ Your bosom defend,
Ere quite with her snares you're beset;
Lest your deep wounded heart
When incens'd by the smart,
Should lead you to curse the coquette.
BYRON, October 27, 1806.
[pg 49]
GRANTA, A MEDLEY.
Oh! could LE SAGE's8 demon's gift,
Be realized at my desire,
This night my trembling form he'd lift,
And place it on St. Mary's spire.
2.
Then would unroof'd old Granta's Halls
Pedantic inmates full display,
Fellows who dream on lawn, or stalls,
The price of hireling votes to pay. ”

“ To him, with suppliant smiles they bend the head,
Whilst mitres, prebends, to their eyes are spread.
But should a storm o'erwhelm him with disgrace,
They'd fly to seek the next, who fill'd his place;
Such are the men who learning's treasures guard,
Such is their practice, such is their reward;
This much at least we may presume to say,
Th' reward's scarce equal, to the price they pay.
1806.
Footnote 6: (return)
Celebrated Critics.
Footnote 7: (return)
The present Greek Professor at Cambridge.
TO MARY, ON RECEIVING HER PICTURE. 1. ”

“ Passages in Byron's correspondence indicate that as early as August of that year some of the poems were in the printers' hands and that during the latter part of August and during September the printing was suspended in order that Byron might give his poems an "entire new form." The new form consisted, in part, in an enlargement; for he wrote to Elizabeth Pigot about September that he had nearly doubled his poems "partly by the discovery of some I conceived to be lost, and partly by some new productions." According to Moore, Fugitive Pieces was ready for distribution in November. ”

“ But another complete copy came to light in 1907 and is now in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. This contains numerous manuscript corrections and alterations, and seems to have been used as a proof copy for Poems on Various Occasions (not, as has sometimes been stated, for Hours of Idleness) . ”

“ As these POEMS are never intended to meet the public eye, no apology is necessary for the form in which they now appear. They are printed merely for the perusal of a few friends to whom they are dedicated; who will look upon them with indulgence ”

“ Who sacrifices hours of rest,
To scan precisely metres attic,
[pg 51]
And agitates his anxious breast,
In solving problems mathematic.
11.
Who reads false quantities in Sele,9
Or puzzles o'er the deep triangle,
And robs himself of many a meal,
In barbarous latin10 doom'd to wrangle.
12.
Renouncing every pleasing page,
From authors of historic use,
Preferring to the lettered sage,
The square of the hypothenuse.11
13.
But harmless are these occupations,
Which hurt none but the hapless student;
Compared with other recreations,
Which bring together the imprudent. ”

“ Only four copies of Fugitive Pieces are known to-day, and one of these is incomplete. The copy from which the present facsimile is made was originally given by Byron to Becher and preserved by him in spite of his objections to the poem "To Mary." From Becher's family it passed into the possession of Mr. Faulkner, of Louth, solicitor for the Becher family. In 1885 it was in the possession of H.W. Ball, antiquary and bookseller of Barton-on-Humber, who sold it to H. Buxton Forman. ”

“ A difficulty in supposing the date of completion of the volume to be about November 16 is that two copies contain inscriptions in Byron's hand with earlier dates. On the copy of the late Mr. J.A. Spoor, of Chicago, the inscription reads: "October 21st Tuesday 1806—Haec poemata ex dono sunt—Georgii Gordon Byron, Vale." That on the copy in the Morgan library reads: "Nov. 8, 1806, H.P.E.D.S.G.G.B., Southwell.—Vale!—Byron," the initials evidently standing for the Latin words of the preceding inscription. ”