POETICAL WORKS OF LORD BYRON Of the mail-cover'd Barons, who, proudly, to battle, Led their vassals from Europe to The escutcheon and shield, which with ev'ry blast rattle, Are the only sad vestiges now that remain. [There were four distinct issues of Byron's juvenile poems, (i.) Fugitive Pieces, which was printed for private circulation in December, 1506; (ii) Poems on Various Occasions, printed for private circulation in January, 1807; (iii.) Hours of Idieness, published in June, 1807, and (iv.) Poems Original and Translated, published in 1808. The whole of the first issue (the Quarto) was destroyed with the exception of two or three copies. In the present issue a general heading, Hours of Idleness, and other Early Poems," has been applied to the entire collection of Early Poems, 1802-1809.] [The priory of Newstead, or de Novo Loco, in Sherwood, was founded about the year 1170, by Henry 11. On the dissolution of the monasteries it was granted (in 1540) by Henry VIII. Sir John Byron the Little, with the great beard.” His portrait is still preserved at New stead.] 3. No more doth old Robert, with harpstringing numbers, Raise a flame, in the breast, for the war-laurell'd wreath; Near Askalon's towers, John of Horistan slumbers, Unnerv'd is the hand of his minstrel, by death. 4. Paul and Hubert too sleep in the valley of Cressy; For the safety of Edward and England they fell: My Fathers! the tears of your country redress ve: How you fought! how you died! still her annals can tell. 5. On Marston, with Rupert,' 'gainst traitors contending, Four brothers enrich'd, with their blood, the bleak field; For the rights of a monarch their country defending, Till death their attachment to royalty seal'd.1 1 Horistan Castle, in Derbyshire, an ancient seat of the Byron family. 2 The Battle of Marston Moor, where the adherents of Charles I. were defeated. 3 Son of the Elector Palatine, and related to Charles I. He afterwards commanded the Fleet, in the reign of Charles 11. [Sir Nicholas Byron, the great-grandson of Sir John Byron the Little, distinguished himself in the Civil Wars. He was Governor of Carlisle, and afterwards Governor of Chester. His nephew and heir-at-law, Sir John Byron, of Clayton, K.B. (1599-1652), was raised to the peerage as Baron Byron of Rochdale, after the Battle of Newbury, October 26, 1643. He died childless, and was succeeded by his brother Richard, the second lord, from whom the poet was descended. Five younger brothers, as Richard's monument in the chancel of Hucknall Torkard Church records. "faithfully served King Charles the First in the Civil Wars, suffered much for their loyalty, and lost all their present fortunes." (See Life of Lord Byron, by Karl Elze: Appendix, Note (A), p. 436.)] 6. Shades of heroes, farewell! your descendant departing From the seat of his ancestors, bids you adieu! Abroad, or at home, your remembrance imparting New courage, he'll think upon glory and you. 7. Though a tear dim his eye at this sad separation, 'Tis nature, not fear, that excites his regret; Far distant he goes, with the same emulation, The fame of his fathers he ne'er can forget. 8. That fame, and that memory, still will he cherish; He vows that he ne'er will disgrace your renown: Like you will he live, or like you will he perish; When decay'd, may he mingle his dust with your own! 1803. [First printed, December, 1806.] TO E LET Folly smile, to view the names Of thee and me, in Friendship twin'd; Yet Virtue will have greater claims To love, than rank with vice combin'd. And though unequal is thy fate, Since title deck'd my higher birth; Yet envy not this gaudy state, Thine is the pride of modest worth. Our souls at least congenial meet, [First printed, December, 1806.] 1[E was, according to Moore, a boy of Byron's own age, the son of one of the tenants at Newstead.] ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY,1 COUSIN TO THE AUTHOR, AND VERY DEAR TO HIM. I. HUSH'D are the winds, and still the evening gloom, Not c'en a zephyr wanders through the grove, Whilst I return to view my Margaret's tomb, And scatter flowers on the dust I love. 2. Within this narrow cell reclines her clay, That clay, where once such animation beam'd; The King of Terrors seiz'd her as his prey; Not worth, nor beauty, have her life redeem'd. 3. Oh! could that King of Terrors pity feel, Or Heaven reverse the dread decree of fate, ["My first dash into poetry was as carly as 1800. It was the ebullition of a passion for my first cousin, Margaret Parker (daughter and granddaughter of the two Admirals Parker). one of the most beautiful of evanescent beings. I have long forgotten the verse; but it would be difficult for me to forget her - her dark eves her long eye-lashes her completely Greek cast of face and figure! I was then about twelve she rather older, perhaps a year. She died about a year or two afterwards.... Some years after I made an attempt at an elegy - a very dull one." Letters, 1001, v. 449. [Margaret Parker was the sister of Sir Peter Farker, whose death at Baltimore, in 1814. Byron celebrated in the "Elegiac Stanzas, which were first published in the poems at tached to the tenth edition of Childe Harold (1815).] |