8. Yes! yield those lips, for which I'd brave I bid thee now a last farewell. 9. Yes! yield that breast, to seek despair And hope no more thy soft embrace; 10. At least from guilt shalt thou be free, STANZAS TO A LADY, WITH THE POEMS OF CAMOËNS.1 I. THIS Votive pledge of fond esteem, Perhaps, dear girl! for me thou❜lt prize; A theme we never can despise. 1. [Lord Strangford's Poems from the Portuguese by Luis de Camoëns and "Little's" Poems are mentioned by Moore as having been Byron's favourite study at this time (Life, p. 39).] 2. Who blames it but the envious fool, The old and disappointed maid? In single sorrow doom'd to fade ? 3. Then read, dear Girl! with feeling read, In pity for the Poet's woes. 4. He was, in sooth, a genuine Bard; His was no faint, fictitious flame : But not thy hapless fate the same. TO M. S. G.1 I. WHEN I dream that you love me, you'll surely forgive; Extend not your anger to sleep; For in visions alone your affection can live,— I rise, and it leaves me to weep. I. ["G. G. B. to E. P."-MS. Newstead.] 2. 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! 3. They tell us that slumber, the sister of death, Mortality's emblem is given; To fate how I long to resign my frail breath, If this be a foretaste of Heaven! 4. Ah! frown not, sweet Lady, unbend your soft brow, Nor deem me too happy in this; If I sin in my dream, I atone for it now, Thus doom'd, but to gaze upon bliss. 5. Though in visions, sweet Lady, perhaps you may smile, Oh! think not my penance deficient ! When dreams of your presence my slumbers beguile, To awake, will be torture sufficient. TRANSLATION FROM HORACE. [Justum et tenacem propositi virum. HOR. Odes, iii. 3. 1.] I. THE man of firm and noble soul Can swerve him from his just intent : To curb the Adriatic main, Would awe his fix'd determined mind in vain. 2. Aye, and the red right arm of Jove, In vast promiscuous ruin hurl'd, Still dauntless 'midst the wreck of earth he'd smile. VOL. I. G THE FIRST KISS OF LOVE. Α βάρβιτος δὲ χορδαῖς Ερωτα μοῦνον ἠχεῖ. ANACREON [Ode 1]. I. AWAY with your fictions of flimsy romance, 2. Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with fantasy glow,. Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove ; From what blest inspiration your sonnets would flow,iii. Could you ever have tasted the first kiss of love. 3. If Apollo should e'er his assistance refuse, Or the Nine be dispos'd from your service to rove, Invoke them no more, bid adieu to the Muse, And try the effect, of the first kiss of love. i. Moriah those air dreams and types has o'er wove.— [MS. Newstead.] Those tissues of fancy Moriah has wove.—[P. on V. Occasions.] ii. Ye rhymers, who sing as if seated on snow. [P. on V. Occasions.] iii. With what blest inspiration.-[MS. P. on V. Occasions.] 1. [The motto was prefixed in Hours of Idleness.] 2. Moriah is the "Goddess of Folly." |