The school where, loud warn'd by the bell, we resorted, To pore o'er the precepts by pedagogues taught. Again I behold where for hours I have ponder'd, As reclining, at eve, on yon tombstone (1) I lay; Or round the steep brow of the churchyard I wander'd, To catch the last gleam of the sun's setting ray. I once more view the room, with spectators surrounded, Where, as Zanga (2), I trod on Alonzo o'erthrown; While, to swell my young pride, such applauses resounded, I fancied that Mossop (3) himself was outshone: Or, as Lear, I pour'd forth the deep imprecation, By my daughters of kingdom and reason deprived; Till, fired by loud plaudits (4) and self-adulation, I regarded myself as a Garrick revived. Ye dreams of my boyhood, how much I regret you! Unfaded your memory dwells in my breast; Though sad and deserted, I ne'er can forget you: Your pleasures may still be in fancy possest. To Ida full oft may remembrance restore me,(5) While fate shall the shades of the future unroll! Since darkness o'ershadows the prospect before me, More dear is the beam of the past to my soul. But if, through the course of the years which await me, Some new scene of pleasure should open to view, I will say, while with rapture the thought shall elate me, "Oh! such were the days which my infancy knew." TO M. S. G. 1806. WHEN I dream that you love me, you'll surely forgive; For in visions alone your affection can live,- Then, Morpheus! envelop my faculties fast, Should the dream of to-night but resemble the last, They tell us that Slumber, the sister of Death, To fate how I long to resign my frail breath, Ah! frown not, sweet lady! unbend your soft brow, If I sin in my dream, I atone for it now, Thus doom'd but to gaze upon bliss. (1) They show a tomb in the churchyard at Harrow, commanding a view over Windsor, which was so well known to be his favourite resting-place, that the boys called it "Byron's Tomb;" and here, they say, he used to sit for hours, wrapt in thought.-L. E. (2) For the display of his declamatory powers, on the speech-days, he selected always the most vehement passages; such as the speech of Zanga over the body of Alonzo, and Lear's address to the storm.-L. E. (3) Mossop, a contemporary of Garrick, famous for his performance of Zanga. (4) "My grand patron, Dr. Drury, had a great notion that I should turn out an orator, from my fluency, my turbulence, my voice, my copiousness of declamation, and my action." -Diary. (5) In the private volume the two last stanzas ran Though in visions, sweet lady! perhaps you may smile, Oh! think not my penance deficient! When dreams of your presence my slumbers beguile, To awake will be torture sufficient. TO M. OH! did those eyes, instead of fire, Howe'er those orbs may wildly beam, That fatal glance forbids esteem. The skies might claim thee for their own: Therefore, to guard her dearest work, Within those once-celestial eyes. These might the boldest sylph appal, But who can dare thine ardent gaze? "Tis said that Berenice's hair In stars adorns the vault of heaven; For did those eyes as planets roll, Thy sister-lights would scarce appear: E'en suns, which systems now control, Would twinkle dimly through their sphere.(6) TO MARY, ON RECEIVING Her picture.(7) THIS faint resemblance of thy charms, Though strong as mortal art could give, My constant heart of fear disarms, Revives my hopes, and bids me live. Here I can trace the locks of gold 1806. Which round thy snowy forehead wave, The cheeks which sprung from beauty's mould, The lips which made me beauty's slave. "I thought this poor brain, fever'd even to madness, Of tears, as of reason, for ever was drain'd; But the drops which now flow down this bosom of sadness Convince me the springs have some moisture retain'd. "Sweet scenes of my childhood! your blest recollection Has wrung from these eyelids, to weeping long dead, In torrents the tears of my warmest affection, The last and the fondest I ever shall shed."-L. E. (6) "Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, Having some business, do intreat her eyes To twinkle in their spheres till they return."-Shaksp. (7) Of this "Mary," who is not to be confounded with the heiress of Annesley, or "Mary" of Aberdeen, all that has been ascertained is, that she was of an humble, if not equivocal, station in life, -and that she had long light golden hair, "of which," says Moore, "he used to show a lock, as well as her picture, among his friends."-L. E. Here I can trace-ah, no! that eye, Whose azure floats in liquid fire, No more we meet in yonder bowers; Must all the painter's art defy, And bid him from the task retire. Here I behold its beauteous hue; But where's the beam so sweetly straying (1) Which gave a lustre to its blue, Like Luna o'er the ocean playing? Sweet copy! far more dear to me, Lifeless, unfeeling as thou art, Than all the living forms could be, Save her who placed thee next my heart. She placed it, sad, with needless fear, Lest Time might shake my wavering soul, Unconscious that her image there Held every sense in fast control. Thro' hours, thro' years, thro' time, 't will cheer; In life's last conflict 't will appear, TO LESBIA. LESBIA! since far from you I've ranged, I'd tell you why, but yet I know not. And, Lesbia! we are not much older, Since, trembling, first my heart I lost, Or told my love, with hope grown bolder. Sixteen was then our utmost age, Two years have lingering past away, love! And now new thoughts our minds engage, At least I feel disposed to stray, love! "Tis I that am alone to blame, I, that am guilty of love's treason; Since your sweet breast is still the same, Caprice must be my only reason. I do not, love! suspect your truth, With jealous doubt my bosom heaves not; Warm was the passion of my youth, One trace of dark deceit it leaves not. No, no, my flame was not pretended; (1) In the private volume "But where's the beam of soft desire? Which gave a lustre to its blue, Love, only love, could e'er inspire."-L. E. (2) The last line is almost a literal translation from a Spanish proverb. (3) The occurrence took place at Southwell, and the beautiful lady to whom the lines were addressed was Miss Houson.-L. E. Pistol-firing at a mark seems to have been a favourite pastime of Lord Byron. "He laways," says Captain Medwin, in his Conversations, "has pistols in his holster, and eight or ten pair, by the first makers in London, carried by his courier." Moore, in his Life says-" Such a passion, indeed had he for arms of every description, that there generally lay a small sword by the side of his bed, with which he used to amuse himself, as he lay awake in the morning, by thrusting it through the bed-hangings. The person who purchased Absence has made me prone to roving; But older, firmer, hearts than ours Have found monotony in loving. Your cheek's soft bloom is unimpair'd, New beauties still are daily bright'ning, Your eye for conquest beams prepared, The forge of Love's resistless lightning. 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! TO WOMAN. WOMAN! experience might have told me But, placed in all thy charms before me, Oh memory! thou choicest blessing, When join'd with hope, when still possessing; "Woman, thy vows are traced in sand."(2) 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.] (3) DOUBTLESS, Sweet girl! the hissing lead, Has fill'd that breast with fond alarms. the bed at the sale of Mrs. Byron's furniture, on her removal to Newstead, gave out, with the view of attaching a stronger interest to the holes in the curtains, that they were pierced by the same sword with which the old Lord had killed Mr. Chaworth, and which his descendant always kept as a memorial by his bed-side. Such is the ready process by which fiction is often engrafted upon fact." "Lord Byron had one little hobby which he has shared, 1 believe, with many distinguished men. He had a great fondness for curious arms of every description. He never saw a handsome or a useful sabre, a curious or a good pair of pistols, or a carbine of a peculiar construction, but he coveted it, and generally contrived to obtain it, at however great a cost. He had, consequently, a perfect magazine of curious and extraordinary, but at the same time useful, weapons."Parry.-P. E. (4) This word is used by Gray, in his poem of The Fatal Sisters: "Iron sleet of arrowy shower Surely some envious demon's force, The ball obey'd some hell-born guide; For such an outrage done to thee? Arraign'd before thy beauty's throne, What punishment wilt thou decree? 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. 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. 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. Choose then, relentless! and I swear Nought shall thy dread decree prevent; Yet hold one little word forbear! Let it be aught but banishment. LOVE'S LAST ADIEU. THE roses of love glad the garden of life, Though nurtured 'mid weeds dropping pestilent dew, In vain with endearments we soothe the sad heart, Still Hope, breathing peace through the grief-swollen breast, Will whisper, "Our meeting we yet may renew:" With this dream of deceit half our sorrow's represt, Nor taste we the poison of love's last adieu! Oh! mark you yon pair: in the sunshine of youth Love twined round their childhood his flow'rs as they grew; They flourish awhile in the season of truth, Till chill'd by the winter of love's last adieu! Sweet lady! why thus doth a tear steal its way Down a cheek which outrivals thy bosom in hue? Yet why do I ask?-to distraction a prey, Thy reason has perish'd with love's last adieu! (1) See ante, p. 12, col. 2, note 7. —P. E. (2) In the above little piece the author has been accused by some candid readers of introducing the name of a lady from whom he was some hundred miles distant at the time this was written; and poor Juliet, who has slept so long in "the tomb of all the Capulets," has been converted, with a tri Oh! who is yon misanthrope, shunning mankind? How he envies the wretch with a soul wrapt in steel! And dreads not the anguish of love's last adieu! Youth flies, life decays, even hope is o'ercast; No more with love's former devotion we sue : Must myrtle and cypress alternately strew: TO A LADY, WHO PRESENTED TO THE AUTHOR A LOCK OF BAIR IN DECEMBER TO MEET HIM IN THE GARDEN. (1) With silly whims and fancies frantic, Why should you weep, like Lydia Languish, Or had the bard at Christmas written, Had changed the place of declaration. Warm nights are proper for reflection; fling alteration of her name, into an English damsel, walking in a garden of their own creation, during the month of December, in a village where the author never passed a winter. Such has been the candour of some ingenious critics. We would advise these liberal commentators on taste and arbiters of decorum to read Shakspeare. Think on our chilly situation, And curb this rage for imitation; TO MARION. MARION! why that pensive brow? What disgust to life hast thou? Change that discontented air; Frowns become not one so fair. 'Tis not love disturbs thy rest, Love's a stranger to thy breast; He in dimpling smiles appears, Or mourns in sweetly timid tears, Or bends the languid eyelid down, But shuns the cold forbidding frown. Then resume thy former fire, Some will love, and all admire; While that icy aspect chills us, Nought but cool indifference thrills us. Wouldst thou wandering hearts beguile? Smile at least, or seem to smile. Eyes like thine were never meant To hide their orbs in dark restraint; Spite of all thou fain wouldst say, Still in truant beams they play. Thy lips--but here my modest Muse Her impulse chaste must needs refuse: She blushes, curtsies, frowns,-in short she Dreads lest the subject should transport me; And, flying off in search of reason, Brings prudence back in proper season. All I shall therefore say (whate'er I think, is neither here nor there) Is, that such lips, of looks endearing, Were form'd for better things than sneering. Of soothing compliments divested, Advice at least's disinterested: Such is my artless song to thee, From all the flow of flattery free. Counsel like mine is as a brother's, My heart is given to some others; (1) Having heard that a very severe and indelicate censure has been passed on the above poem, I beg leave to reply in a quotation from an admired work, Carr's Stranger in France. As we were contemplating a painting on a large scale, in which, among other figures, is the uncovered whole-length of a warrior, a prudish-looking lady, who seemed to have touched the age of desperation, after having attentively surveyed it through her glass, observed to her party, that there was a great deal of indecorum in that picture. Madame S. shrewdly whispered in my ear, that the indecorum was in the remark.'” (2) In law every person is an infant who has not attained the age of twenty-one. (3) When I went up to Trinity, in 1805, at the age of seventeen and a half, I was miserable and untoward to a degree. I was wretched at leaving Harrow-wretched at going That is to say, unskill'd to cozen, DAMETAS. IN law an infant (2), and in years a boy, In mind a slave to every vicious joy; From every sense of shame and virtue wean d; Versed in hypocrisy, while yet a child; Woman his dupe, his heedless friend a tool; OSCAR OF ALVA. (4) A TALE. How sweetly shines, through azure skies, But often has yon rolling moon On Alva's casques of silver play'd; And view'd, at midnight's silent noon, Her chiefs in gleaming mail array'd: And on the crimson'd rocks beneath, Which scowl o'er ocean's sullen flow, Pale in the scatter'd ranks of death, She saw the gasping warrior low; to Cambridge instead of Oxford- wretched from some private domestic circumstances of different kinds; and, consequently, about as unsocial as a wolf taken from the troop." Diary. -Mr. Moore adds, "The sort of life which young Byron led at this period, between the dissipations of London and of Cambridge, without a home to welcome, or even the roof of a single relative to receive him, was but little calculated to Unrender him satisfied either with himself or the world. restricted as he was by deference to any will but his own, even the pleasures to which he was naturally most inclined prematurely palled upon him, for want of those best zests of all enjoyment-rarity and restraint."- L. E. (4) The catastrophe of this tale was suggested by the story of "Jeronymo and Lorenzo," in the first volume of Schiller's Armenian, or the Ghost Seer. It also bears some resemblance to a scene in the third act of Macbeth. While many an eye, which ne'er again Could mark the rising orb of day, Once to those eyes the lamp of Love, A sad, funereal torch of night. And grey her towers are seen afar; No more her heroes urge the chase, Or roll the crimson tide of war. But, who was last of Alva's clan? Why grows the moss on Alva's stone? Her towers resound no steps of man, They echo to the gale alone. And when that gale is fierce and high, And vibrates o'er the mouldering wall. Yes, when the eddying tempest sighs, It shakes the shield of Oscar brave; But there no more his banners rise, No more his plumes of sable wave. Fair shone the sun on Oscar's birth, When Angus hail'd his eldest-born; The vassals round their chieftain's hearth Crowd to applaud the happy morn. They feast upon the mountain deer, The pibroch raised its piercing note; (1) To gladden more their Highland cheer, The strains in martial numbers float: And they who heard the war-notes wild Hoped that one day the pibroch's strain Should play before the hero's child, While he should lead the tartan train. Another year is quickly past, And Angus hails another son; His natal day is like the last, Nor soon the jocund feast was done. On Alva's dusky hills of wind, But ere their years of youth are o'er, They mingle in the ranks of war; Wildly it stream'd along the gale; But Oscar own'd a hero's soul, His dark eye shone through beams of truth; Allan had early learn'd control, And smooth his words had been from youth. (1) Lord Byron falls into a very common error, that of | mistaking pibroch, which means a particular sort of tune, for the instrument on which it is played, the bagpipe. Almost Both, both were brave; the Saxon spear But Oscar's bosom knew to feel; While Allan's soul belied his form, From high Southannon's distant tower And Oscar claim'd the beauteous bride, And still the choral peal prolong. It is not war their aid demands, The pibroch plays the song of peace; To Oscar's nuptials throng the bands, Nor yet the sounds of pleasure cease. But where is Oscar? sure 't is late: Is this a bridegroom's ardent flame? While thronging guests and ladies wait, Nor Oscar nor his brother came. At length young Allan join'd the bride: "Why comes not Oscar," Angus said: "Is he not here?" the youth replied; "With me he roved not o'er the glade: "Perchance, forgetful of the day, 'T is his to chase the bounding roe; Or ocean's waves prolong his stay; Yet Oscar's bark is seldom slow." "Oh, no!" the anguish'd' sire rejoin'd, "Nor chase, nor wave, my boy delay; Would he to Mora seem unkind? Would aught to her impede his way? "Oh, search, ye chiefs! oh, search around! It breaks the stillness of the night, But echoes through her shades in vain: It sounds through morning's misty light, But Oscar comes not o'er the plain. every foreign tourist, Nodier, for example, does the same. The reader will find this little slip noticed in the article from the Edinburgh Review appended.-L. E. |