Not in those climes where I have late been straying, Though Beauty long hath there been matchless deemed, Not in those visions to the heart displaying Forms which it sighs but to have only dreamed, Hath aught like thee in Truth or Fancy seemed: To paint those charms which varied as they beamed- i. To the Lady Charlotte Harley.—[MS. M.] 1. [The Lady Charlotte Mary Harley, second daughter of Edward, fifth Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, was born 1801. She married, in 1823, Captain Anthony Bacon (died July 2, 1864), who had followed "young, gallant Howard" (see Childe Harold, III. xxix.) in his last fatal charge at Waterloo, and who, subsequently, during the progress of the civil war between Dom Miguel and Maria da Gloria of Portugal (182833), held command as colonel of cavalry in the Queen's forces, and finally as a general officer. Lady Charlotte Bacon died May 9, 1880. Byron's acquaintance with her probably dated from his visit to Lord and Lady Oxford, at Eywood House, in Herefordshire, in October-November, 1812. Her portrait, by Westall, which was painted at his request, is included among the illustrations in Finden's Illustrations of the Life and Works of Lord Byron, ii. See Gent. Mag., N.S., vol. xvii. (1864) p. 261; and an obituary notice in the Times, May 10, 1880. See, too, letter to Murray, March 29, 1813 (Letters, 1898, ii. 200).] To such as see thee not my words were weak; To those who gaze on thee what language could they speak? Ah! may'st thou ever be what now thou art, Young Peri of the West!-'tis well for me My years already doubly number thine; 2 Happier, that, while all younger hearts shall bleed, To those whose admiration shall succeed, But mixed with pangs to Love's even loveliest hours decreed. 1. [The reference is to the French proverb, L'Amitié est l'Amour sans Ailes, which suggested the last line (line 412) of Childish Recollections, "And Love, without his pinion, smil'd on youth," and forms the title of one of the early poems, first published in 1832 (Poetical Works, 1898, i. 106, 220).] 2. In 1814, when the dedication was published, Byron completed his twenty-sixth year, Ianthe her thirteenth.] Oh! let that eye, which, wild as the Gazelle's, Wins as it wanders, dazzles where it dwells,1 This much, dear Maid, accord; nor question why To one so young my strain I would commend, But bid me with my wreath one matchless Lily blend. Such is thy name 2 with this my verse entwined; 1. And long as kinder eyes a look shall cast i. And long as kinder eyes shall deign to cast 1. [For the modulation of the verse, compare Pope's lines "Correctly cold, and regularly low." Essay on Criticism, line 240. 66 Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes." Ibid., line 198.] 2. [Ianthe ("Flower o' the Narcissus ") was the name of a Cretan girl wedded to one Iphis (vid. Ovid., Metamorph., ix. 714). But, perhaps, the Ianthe of Queen Mab, who had already bestowed her name on Shelley's eldest daughter (afterwards Mrs. Esdaile, b. June 13, 1813, d. 1876), was responsible for Byron's Ianthe.] |