STANZAS TO THE PO.1 I. RIVER, that rollest by the ancient walls, Where dwells the Lady of my love, when she Walks by thy brink, and there perchance recalls A faint and fleeting memory of me: 2. What if thy deep and ample stream should be 3. What do I say-a mirror of my heart? Are not thy waters sweeping, dark, and strong? Such as my feelings were and are, thou art; And such as thou art were my passions long. 1. [There has been some misunderstanding with regard to this poem. According to the statement of the Countess Guiccioli (see Works of Lord Byron, ed. 1832, xii. 14), "Stanzas to the Po" were composed about the middle of April, 1819, "while Lord Byron was actually sailing on the Po," en route from Venice to Ravenna. Medwin, who was the first to publish the lines (Conversations, etc., 1824, 4to, pp. 2426), says that they were written when Byron was about to "quit Venice to join" the Countess at Ravenna, and, in a footnote, explains that the river referred to is the Po. Now, if the Countess and Medwin (and Moore, who follows Medwin, Life, p. 396) are right, and the river is the Po, the "ancient walls" Ravenna, and the "Lady of the land" the Guiccioli, the stanzas may have been written in June (not April), 1819, possibly at Ferrara, and the river must be the Po di Primaro. Even so, the first line of the first stanza and the third and fourth lines of the ninth stanza require explanation. The Po does not "roll by the ancient walls" of Ravenna; and how could Byron be at one and the same time "by the source" (stanza 9, line 4), and sailing on the river, or on some can lized tributary or effluent? Be the explanation what it may --and it is possible that the lines were not originally designed for the Countess, but for another "Lady of the land" (see letter to Murray, May 18, 1819)-it may be surmised that "the lines written last year on crossing the Po," the "mere verses of society," which were given to Kinnaird (see letter to Murray, May 8, 1820, and Conversations of Lord Byron with Lady Blessington, 1834, p. 143), were not the sombre though passionate elegy, "River, that rollest," but the bitter and somewhat cynical rhymes, "Could Love for ever, Run like a river" (vide post, P. 549).] VOL. IV. 2 N i 4. Time may have somewhat tamed them,-not for ever; Thy floods subside, and mine have sunk away: 5. But left long wrecks behind, and now again,1 6. The current I behold will sweep beneath 7. She will look on thee,-I have looked on thee, 8. Her bright eyes will be imaged in thy stream,- Mine cannot witness, even in a dream, That happy wave repass me in its flow! 9. The wave that bears my tears returns no more: I by thy source, she by the dark-blue deep." i. But left long wrecks behind them, and again. 10. But that which keepeth us apart is not Distance, nor depth of wave, nor space of earth, But the distraction of a various lot, As various as the climates of our birth. II. A stranger loves the Lady of the land, Born far beyond the mountains, but his blood Is all meridian, as if never fanned By the black wind that chills the polar flood.". 12. My blood is all meridian; were it not, I had not left my clime, nor should I be,i In spite of tortures, ne'er to be forgot, 13. iti. "Tis vain to struggle-let me perish youngLive as I lived, and love as I have loved; To dust if I return, from dust I sprung, And then, at least, my heart can ne'er be moved. June, 1819. [First published, Conversations of Lord Byron, 1824, 4o, pp. 24-26.] SONNET ON THE NUPTIALS OF THE MARQUIS ANTONIO CAVALLI WITH THE COUNTESS CLELIA RASPONI OF RAVENNA.1 A NOBLE Lady of the Italian shore Lovely and young, herself a happy bride, i. A stranger loves a lady —.—[Medwin.] ii. By the bleak wind -[Medwin.] iii. I had not left my clime ;—I shall not be.—[Medwin.] 1. I wrote this sonnet (after tearing the first) on being repeatedly urged to do so by the Countess G. [It was at the house of the Marquis Cavalli, uncle to the countess, that Byron appeared in the part of a fully-recognized "Cicisbeo."-See letter to Hoppner, December 31, 1819, Letters, 1900, iv. 393.] From me a wandering Englishman; I tore To hail these gentle hearts which Love has tied, Were worthier of your hopes, Auspicious Pair! But, since I cannot but obey the Fair, May your Fate be like Hers, and unlike mine. Ravenna, July 31, 1819. [From an autograph MS. in the possession of the Lady Dorchester, now for the first time printed.] SONNET TO THE PRINCE REGENT.¿ ON THE REPEAL OF LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD'S FORFEITURE. To be the father of the fatherless, To stretch the hand from the throne's height, and raise To make thy Sire's sway by a kingdom less,—§. Envy into unutterable praise. Dismiss thy guard, and trust thee to such traits, Thy Sovereignty would grow but more complete, And by the heart-not hand-enslaving us. Bologna, August 12, 1819.1 [First published, Letters and Journals, ii. 234, 235.] i. To the Prince Regent on the repeal of the bill of attainder against Lord E. Fitzgerald, June, 1819. ii. To leave -. -.—[MS. M.] iii. Who NOW would lift a hand ———.—[MS. M.] 1. ["So the prince has been repealing Lord Fitzgerald's forfeiture? STANZAS.1 I. COULD Love for ever Be tried in vain- No other pleasure Love plumes his wing; Then for this reason Let's love a season; But let that season be only Spring. i. And as a treasure.-[MS. Guiccioli.] Ecco un' Sonetto! There, you dogs! there's a Sonnet for you: you won't have such as that in a hurry from Mr. Fitzgerald. You may publish it with my name, an ye wool. He deserves all praise, bad and good; it was a very noble piece of principality."-Letter to Murray, August 12, 1819. For [William Thomas] Fitgerald, see Poetical Works, 1898, i. 297, note 3; for Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798), see Letters, 1900, iv. 345, note 1. The royal assent was given to a bill for "restoring Edward Fox Fitzgerald and his sisters Pamela and Lucy to their blood," July 13, 1819. The sonnet was addressed to George IV. when Prince Regent. The title, "To George the Fourth," affixed in 1831, is incorrect.] 1. ["A friend of Lord Byron's, who was with him at Ravenna when he wrote these stanzas, says, They were composed, like many others, with no view of publication, but merely to relieve himself in a moment of suffering. He had been painfully excited by some circumstances which appeared to make it necessary that he should immediately quit Italy; and in the day and the hour that he wrote the song was labouring under an access of fever" (Works, 1832, xii. 317, note 1). Here, too, there is some confusion of dates and places. Byron was at Venice, not at Ravenna, December 1, 1819, when these lines were composed. They were sent, as Lady Blessington testifies, to Kinnaird, and are probably identical with the "mere verses of society," mentioned in the letter to Murray of May 8, 1820. The last stanza reflects the mood of a letter to the Countess Guiccioli, dated November 25 (1819), "I go to save you, and leave a country insupportable to me without you" (Letters, 1900, iv. 379, note 2).] |