POEMS 1814–1816.

FAREWELL! IF EVER FONDEST PRAYER.

I.

FAREWELL! if ever fondest prayer

For other's weal availed on high,
Mine will not all be lost in air,

But waft thy name beyond the sky.
'Twere vain to speak-to weep-to sigh:

Oh! more than tears of blood can tell,
When wrung from Guilt's expiring eye,

Are in that word-Farewell !-Farewell !

2.

These lips are mute, these eyes are dry;

But in my breast and in my brain,
Awake the pangs

that

pass not by,
The thought that ne'er shall sleep again.
My soul nor deigns nor dares complain,

Though Grief and Passion there rebel :
I only know we loved in vain-
I only feel- Farewell !-Farewell !

[First published, Corsair, Second Edition, 1814.)

1. (Compare The Corsair, Canto I. stanza xv. lines 480-490.) VOL. III.

WHEN WE TWO PARTED.

I.

WHEN we two parted

In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted

To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,

Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold

Sorrow to this.

2.

The dew of the morning i

Sunk chill on my brow-
It felt like the warning

Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,

And light is thy fame:
I hear thy name spoken,

And share in its shame,

3.iv.

They name thee before me,

A knell to mine ear;

i. Never may I behold

Moment like this.-(MS.) ii. The damp of the morning

Clung chill on my brow.-[MS. crased.] ii. Thy vow hath been broken.-[MS.) iv.

lies hidden
Our secret of sorrow

And deep in my soul-
But deed more forbidden,
Our secret lies hidden,

But never forgot.-[Erasures, stanza 3, MS.,

A shudder comes o'er me

Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,

Who knew thee too well :-
Long, long shall I rue thee,

Too deeply to tell.

4.

In secret we met

In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,

Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet theel

After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears.

[First published, Poems, 1816.)

(LOVE AND GOLD.']

I.

I CANNOT talk of Love to thee,

Though thou art young and free and fair!

i. If one should meet thee
How should we grect thee!

In silence and tears.-(MS.) 1. [From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for the first time printed.

The water-mark of the paper on which a much-tortured rough copy of these lines has been scrawled, is 1809, but, with this exception, there is no hint as to the date of composition. An entry in the Diary for November 30, 1813, in which Annabella (Miss Milbanke) is described “as an heiress, a girl of twenty, a peeress that is to be," etc., and a letter (Byron to Miss Milbanke) dated November 29, 1813 (sce Letters, 1898, ii. 357, and 1899, iii. 407),

There is a spell thou dost not see,

That bids a genuine love despair.

2.

And yet that spell invites each youth,

For thee to sigh, or seem to sigh;
Makes falsehood wear the garb of truth,

And Truth itself appear a lie.

3.
If ever Doubt a place possest

In woman's heart, 'twere wise in thine:
Admit not Love into thy breast,

Doubt others' love, nor trust in mine.

Perchance 'tis feigned, perchance sincere,

But false or true thou canst not tell;
So much hast thou from all to fear,

In that unconquerable spell.

5.
Of all the herd that throng around,

Thy simpering or thy sighing train,
Come tell me who to thee is bound

By Love's or Plutus' heavier chain.

6.
In some 'tis Nature, some 'tis Art

That bids them worship at thy shrine;

in which there is more than one allusion to her would-be suitors, "your thousand and one pretendants,” etc., suggest the idea that the lines were addressed to his future wife, when he first made her acquaintance in 1812 or 1813.)