The present is hell! and the coming to-morrow

But brings, with new torture, the curse of to-day.

2.

From my eye flows no tear, from my lips flow 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.

Was my eye, 'stead of tears, with red fury flakes bright'ning,

Would my lips breathe a flame which no stream could

assuage,

On our foes should my glance launch in vengeance its

lightning,

With transport my tongue give a loose to its rage.

4.

But now tears and curses, alike unavailing,
Would add to the souls of our tyrants delight;
Could they view us our sad separation bewailing,
Their merciless hearts would rejoice at the sight.

5.

Yet, still, though we bend with a feign'd resignation, Life beams not for us with one ray that can cheer; Love and Hope upon earth bring no more consolation, In the grave is our hope, for in life is our fear.

i.

fall no curses. -[4to. P. on V. Occasions.]

6.

Oh! when, my ador'd, in the tomb will they place me,
Since, in life, love and friendship for ever are fled ?

If again in the mansion of death I embrace thee,
Perhaps they will leave unmolested-the dead.

TO CAROLINE.1

1805.

I.

WHEN I hear you express an affection so warm,
Ne'er think, my belov'd, that I do not believe;

For your lip would the soul of suspicion disarm,
And your eye beams a ray which can never deceive.

2.

Yet still, this fond bosom regrets, while adoring,

That love, like the leaf, must fall into the sear, That Age will come on, when Remembrance, deploring, Contemplates the scenes of her youth, with a tear;

3.

That the time must arrive, when, no longer retaining

Their auburn, those locks must wave thin to the breeze,

When a few silver hairs of those tresses remaining,

Prove nature a prey to decay and disease.

I. [There is no heading in the Quarto.]

4.

'Tis this, my belov'd, which spreads gloom o'er my

features,

Though 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 you of me.

5.

ii.

Mistake not, sweet sceptic, the cause of emotion,
No doubt can the mind of your lover invade;
He worships each look with such faithful devotion,
A smile can enchant, or a tear can dissuade.

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.

7.

Oh! then let us drain, while we may, draughts of pleasure,
Which from passion, like ours, must unceasingly flow; iii.
Let us pass round the cup of Love's bliss in full measure,
And quaff the contents as our nectar below.

i.

will deprive me of thee.—[4to]

ii. No jargon of priests o'er our union was mutter'd,
To rivet the fetters of husband and wife;

iii.

1805.

By our lips, by our hearts, were our vows alone utter'd,
To perform them, in full, would ask more than a life.—[4to]
will unceasingly flow.-[4to]

ON A DISTANT VIEW OF THE VILLAGE AND SCHOOL OF HARROW ON THE HILL, 1806.

Oh! mihi præteritos referat si Jupiter annos.'-VIRGIL.

I.

YE scenes of my childhood, whose lov'd recollection

Embitters the present, compar'd with the past; Where science first dawn'd on the powers of reflection, And friendships were form'd, too romantic to last; 2

2.

Where fancy, yet, joys to retrace the resemblance
Of comrades, in friendship and mischief allied;"
How welcome to me your ne'er fading remembrance,
Which rests in the bosom, though hope is deny'd!

3.

Again I revisit the hills where we sported,

The streams where we swam, and the fields where we fought ; 4

i. How welcome once more.-[4to]

1. [The motto was prefixed in Hours of Idleness.]

2.

My school-friendships were with me passions (for I was always violent), but I do not know that there is one which has endured (to be sure, some have been cut short by death) till now."-Diary, 1821; Life, p. 21.]

3. [Byron was at first placed in the house of Mr. Henry Drury, but in 1803 was removed to that of Mr. Evans. "The reason why Lord Byron wishes for the change, arises from the repeated complaints of Mr. Henry Drury respecting his inattention to business, and his propensity to make others laugh and disregard their employment as much as himself." Dr. JOSEPH DRURY to Mr. JOHN HANSON.]

4. ["At Harrow I fought my way very fairly. I think I lost but one battle out of seven."-Diary, 1821; Life, p. 21.]

The school where, loud warn'd by the bell, we resorted,

To pore o'er the precepts by Pedagogues taught.

4.

Again I behold where for hours I have ponder'd,

As reclining, at eve, on yon tombstone1 I lay; Or round the steep brow of the churchyard I wander'd, To catch the last gleam of the sun's setting ray.

5.

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.

6.

Or, as Lear, I pour'd forth the deep imprecation,

By my daughters, of kingdom and reason depriv'd; Till, fir'd by loud plaudits and self-adulation,

I regarded myself as a Garrick reviv'd.

i. I consider'd myself.--[4to]

I. [A tomb in the churchyard at Harrow 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 up in thought.-Life, p. 26.]

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.-Life, p. 20, note; and post, p. 103, var. i.]

3. [Henry Mossop (1729-1773), a contemporary of Garrick, famous for his performance of "Zanga" in Young's tragedy of The Revenge.]