ON THE QUOTATION, AND MY TRUE FAITH," ETC.

Sincere, but swift in sad transition:

As if a dream alone had charmed?
Ah! sure such grief is Fancy's scheming,
And all thy Change can be but dreaming!

[First published, Childe Harold, 1814 (Seventh Edition).]

65

ON BEING ASKED WHAT WAS THE "ORIGIN
OF LOVE."L

THE "Origin of Love!"-Ah, why
That cruel question ask of me,
When thou mayst read in many an eye
He starts to life on seeing thee?
And shouldst thou seek his end to know:
My heart forebodes, my fears foresee,
He'll linger long in silent woe;

But live until-I cease to be.

[First published, Childe Harold, 1814 (Seventh Edition).]

ON THE QUOTATION,

"And my true faith can alter never,

Though thou art gone perhaps for ever."

I.

AND "thy true faith can alter never?
Indeed it lasted for a-week!
I know the length of Love's forever,
And just expected such a freak.
In peace we met, in peace we parted,
In peace we vowed to meet again,
And though I find thee fickle-hearted
No pang of mine shall make thee vain.

i. To Ianthe. [MS. M. Compare "The Dedication"
to Childe Harold.]

VOL. III.

F

2.

One gone 'twas time to seek a second;
In sooth 'twere hard to blame thy haste.
And whatsoe'er thy love be reckoned,

At least thou hast improved in taste :
Though one was young, the next was younger,
His love was new, mine too well known-
And what might make the charm still stronger,
The youth was present, I was flown.

3.

Seven days and nights of single sorrow!
Too much for human constancy!

A fortnight past, why then to-morrow,
His turn is come to follow me:
And if each week you change a lover,

And so have acted heretofore,
Before a year or two is over

We'll form a very pretty corps.

4.

Adieu, fair thing! without upbraiding
I fain would take a decent leave;
Thy beauty still survives unfading,
And undeceived may long deceive.
With him unto thy bosom dearer

Enjoy the moments as they flee;

I only wish his love sincerer

Than thy young heart has been to me.

1812.

[From a MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for the first time printed.]

REMEMBER HIM, WHOM PASSION'S POWER.1

I.

REMEMBER him, whom Passion's power

Severely deeply-vainly proved:
Remember thou that dangerous hour,

When neither fell, though both were loved.

2.

That yielding breast, that melting eye,"
Too much invited to be blessed:
That gentle prayer, that pleading sigh,
The wilder wish reproved, repressed.

3.

Oh! let me feel that all I lost H.

But saved thee all that Conscience fears;

And blush for every pang it cost

To spare the vain remorse of years.

4.

Yet think of this when many a tongue,
Whose busy accents whisper blame,
Would do the heart that loved thee wrong,
And brand a nearly blighted name.iv.

i. To him who loves and her who loved.-[MS. M.]
ii. That trembling form -[MS. M.]

iii. Resigning thee, alas! I lost

Joys bought too dear, if bright with tears,

Yet ne'er regret the pangs it cost.-[MS. M. erased.]
iv. And crush -.
-.-[MS. M.]

I. [It is possible that these lines, as well as the Sonnets "To Genevra," were addressed to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster. -See Letters, 1898, ii. 2, note 1; and Letters, 1899, iii. 8, note 1.]

5.

Think that, whate'er to others, thou

Hast seen each selfish thought subdued:

I bless thy purer soul even now,

Even now, in midnight solitude.

6.

Oh, God! that we had met in time,

Our hearts as fond, thy hand more free; When thou hadst loved without a crime, And I been less unworthy thee ! ↳

7.

Far may thy days, as heretofore,l.
From this our gaudy world be past!
And that too bitter moment o'er,
Oh! may such trial be thy last.

8.

This heart, alas! perverted long,

Itself destroyed might there destroy;

To meet thee in the glittering throng, Would wake Presumption's hope of joy.

9.

Then to the things whose bliss or woe, Like mine, is wild and worthless all, That world resign-such scenes forego, Where those who feel must surely fall.

IO.

Thy youth, thy charms, thy tenderness-
Thy soul from long seclusion pure;

i. And I been not unworthy thee.-[MS. M.]
ii. Long may thy days .-[MS. M.]
iii. Might make my hope of guilty joy.—[MS.]

From what even here hath passed, may guess
What there thy bosom must endure.

II.

Oh! pardon that imploring tear,
Since not by Virtue shed in vain,
My frenzy drew from eyes so dear;
For me they shall not weep again.

12.

Though long and mournful must it be,
The thought that we no more may meet;

Yet I deserve the stern decree,

And almost deem the sentence sweet.

13.

Still had I loved thee less-my heart

Had then less sacrificed to thine;

It felt not half so much to part

As if its guilt had made thee mine.

1813.

[MS. M. First published, Childe Harold, 1814 (Seventh Edition).]

IMPROMPTU, IN REPLY TO A FRIEND.1

WHEN, from the heart where Sorrow sits,
Her dusky shadow mounts too high,

1. [Byron forwarded these lines to Moore in a postscript to a letter dated September 27, 1813. "Here's," he writes, "an impromptu for you by a person of quality,' written last week, on being reproached for low spirits."-Letters, 1898, ii. 268. They were written at Aston Hall, Rotherham, where he " stayed a week. and behaved very well-though the lady of the house [Lady F. Wedderburn Webster] is young, and religious, and pretty, and the master is my particular friend."-Letters, 1898, ii. 267.]