May all the hours be winged with joy,
Which hover faithful hearts above!

Fair Venus! on thy myrtle shrine
May I with some fond lover sigh!
Whose heart may mingle pure with mine,
With me to live, with me to die!

5.

My native soil! belov'd before,
Now dearer, as my peaceful home,
Ne'er may I quit thy rocky shore,

A hapless banish'd wretch to roam!
This very day, this very hour,

May I resign this fleeting breath!
Nor quit my silent humble bower;

A doom, to me, far worse than death.

6.

Have I not heard the exile's sigh,
And seen the exile's silent tear,
Through distant climes condemn'd to fly,
A pensive, weary wanderer here?
Ah! hapless dame !1 no sire bewails,
No friend thy wretched fate deplores,

No kindred voice with rapture hails

Thy steps within a stranger's doors.

1. Medea, who accompanied Jason to Corinth, was deserted by him for the daughter of Creon, king of that city. The chorus, from which this is taken, here addresses Medea; though a considerable liberty is taken with the original, by expanding the idea, as also in some other parts of the translation.

7.

Perish the fiend! whose iron heart

To fair affection's truth unknown,
Bids her he fondly lov'd depart,
Unpitied, helpless, and alone;
Who ne'er unlocks with silver key,1
The milder treasures of his soul;

May such a friend be far from me,
And Ocean's storms between us roll!

LACHIN Y GABR.2

I.

AWAY, ye gay landscapes, ye gardens of roses!
In you let the minions of luxury rove;

Restore me the rocks, where the snow-flake reposes,
Though still they are sacred to freedom and love:
Yet, Caledonia, belov'd are thy mountains,

Round their white summits though elements war;

I. The original is καθαρὰν ἀνοίξαντα κλῇδα φρενῶν, literally disclosing the bright key of the mind."

66

2. Lachin y Gair, or, as it is pronounced in the Erse, Loch na Garr, towers proudly pre-eminent in the Northern Highlands, near Invercauld. One of our modern tourists mentions it as the highest mountain, perhaps, in Great Britain. Be this as it may, it is certainly one of the most sublime and picturesque amongst our Caledonian Alps." Its appearance is of a dusky hue, but the summit is the seat of eternal snows. Near Lachin y Gair I spent some of the early part of my life, the recollection of which has given birth to the following stanzas. [Prefixed to the poem in Hours of Idleness and Poems O. and T.]

Though cataracts foam 'stead of smooth-flowing fountains,

I sigh for the valley of dark Loch na Garr.

2.

Ah! there my young footsteps in infancy, wander'd:
My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid;1
On chieftains, long perish'd, my memory ponder'd,
As daily I strode through the pine-cover'd glade;
I sought not my home, till the day's dying glory
Gave place to the rays of the bright polar star;
For fancy was cheer'd, by traditional story,

Disclos'd by the natives of dark Loch na Garr.

3.

"Shades of the dead! have I not heard your voices Rise on the night-rolling breath of the gale?" Surely, the soul of the hero rejoices,

And rides on the wind, o'er his own Highland vale! Round Loch na Garr, while the stormy mist gathers, Winter presides in his cold icy car:

Clouds, there, encircle the forms of my Fathers;
They dwell in the tempests of dark Loch na Garr.

4.

"Ill starr'd, though brave, did no visions foreboding Tell you that fate had forsaken your cause?”

1. This word is erroneously pronounced plad; the proper pronunciation (according to the Scotch) is shown by the orthography.

2. I allude here to my maternal ancestors, "the Gordons,"

Ah! were you destined to die at Culloden,1

Victory crown'd not your fall with applause : Still were you happy, in death's earthy slumber,

You rest with your clan, in the caves of Braemar ; 2 The Pibroch resounds, to the piper's loud number, Your deeds, on the echoes of dark Loch na Garr.

5.

Years have roll'd on, Loch na Garr, since I left you,
Years must elapse, ere I tread you again :
Nature of verdure and flowers has bereft you,
Yet still are you dearer than Albion's plain :
England! thy beauties are tame and domestic,

To one who has rov'd on the mountains afar :
Oh! for the crags that are wild and majestic,

The steep, frowning glories of dark Loch na Garr.'

many of whom fought for the unfortunate Prince Charles, better known by the name of the Pretender. This branch was nearly allied by blood, as well as attachment, to the Stuarts. George, the second Earl of Huntley, married the Princess Annabella Stuart, daughter of James I. of Scotland. By her he left four sons: the third, Sir William Gordon, I have the honour to claim as one of my progenitors.

1. Whether any perished in the Battle of Culloden, I am not certain; but, as many fell in the insurrection, I have used the name of the principal action, “pars pro toto.”

2. A tract of the Highlands so called. There is also a Castle of Braemar.

3. [The Bagpipe.-Hours of Idleness. (See note, p. 133.)] 4. [The love of mountains to the last made Byron

"Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face,

And Loch na Garr with Ida looked o'er Troy."

The Island (1823), Canto II. stanza xii.]

TO ROMANCE.

I.

PARENT of golden dreams, Romance!
Auspicious Queen of childish joys,
Who lead'st along, in airy dance,
Thy votive train of girls and boys;
At length, in spells no longer bound,
I break the fetters of my youth;

No more I tread thy mystic round,

But leave thy realms for those of Truth.

2.

And yet 'tis hard to quit the dreams

Which haunt the unsuspicious soul,

Where every nymph a goddess seems,1 Whose eyes through rays immortal roll; While Fancy holds her boundless reign, And all assume a varied hue;

When Virgins seem no longer vain,

And even Woman's smiles are true.

3.

And must we own thee, but a name,

And from thy hall of clouds descend?

i. Where every girl ·

--.- -[MS. Newstead.]