To this is join'd the sacred song, Our choir would scarcely be excused, To such a set of croaking sinners. If David, when his toils were ended, Had heard these blockheads sing before him, To us his psalms had ne'er descended, In furious mood he would have tore 'em. The luckless Israelites, when taken Oh! had they sung in notes like these, They might have set their hearts at ease, But if I scribble longer now, The deuce a soul will stay to read : Therefore, farewell, old Granta's spires! No more thy theme my muse inspires: The reader 's tired, and so am I. 1806. ON A DISTANT VIEW OF THE VILLAGE AND SCHOOL OF HARROW-ON-THE-HILL. Oh! mihi præteritos referat si Jupiter annos. VIRGIL. YE scenes of my childhood, whose loved recollection Where fancy yet joys to retrace the resemblance Again I revisit the hills where we sported, The streams where we swam, and the fields where we fought; 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* I lay ; I once more view the room, with spectators surrounded, Or, as Lear, I pour'd forth the deep imprecation, Ye dreams of my boyhood, how much I regret you! To Ida full oft may remembrance restore me, But if, through the course of the years which await me, 1806. 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 up in thought.-E. 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.-E. Mossop, a cotemporary of Garrick, famous for his performance of Zanga. TO M-. OH! did those eyes, instead of fire, For thou art form'd so heavenly fair, When Nature stamp'd thy beauteous birth, The skies might claim thee for their own. 'T is said, that Berenice's hair In stars adorn the vault of heaven; For did those eyes as planets roll, Thy sister lights would scarce appear: Even suns, which systems now control, Would twinkle dimly through their sphere. TO WOMAN. WOMAN! experience might have told me Thy firmest promises are nought; 1806 But, placed in all thy charms before me, Oh Memory! thou choicest blessing, “Woman! thy vows are traced in sand.” ⋆ TO M. S. G. WHEN I dream that you love me, you 'Il surely forgive; Extend not your anger to sleep, For in visions alone your affection can live ; I rise, and it leaves me to weep. Then, Morpheus! envelop my faculties fast, Shed o'er me your languor benign; Should the dream of to-night but resemble the last, What rapture celestial is mine! They tell us, that Slumber, the sister of Death, Mortality's emblem is given; To fate how I long to resign my frail breath, Ah! frown not, sweet lady, unbend your soft brow, Though in visions, sweet lady, perhaps you may smile, When dreams of your presence my slumbers beguile, The last line is almost a literal translation from a Spanish proverb. TO MARY, ON RECEIVING HER PICTURE.* THIS faint resemblance of thy charms, Here I can trace the locks of gold Here I can trace-ah, no! that eye, And bid him from the task retire. Here I behold its beauteous hue; But where's the beam so sweetly straying Which gave a lustre to its blue, Like Luna o'er the ocean playing? Sweet copy! far more dear to me, 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. Through hours, through years, through time, 't will cheer; My hope, in gloomy moments, raise; In life's last conflict 't will appear, And meet my fond expiring gaze. * 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.”—E. |