Thou rolling Sun who gild'st those rising towers,
Fair didst thou shine upon my earlier hours!
I hail'd with smiles the cheering rays of Morn,
My breast by no tumultuous Passion torn-
Now hateful are thy beams which wake no more
The sense of joy which thrill'd my breast before;
Welcome thou cloudy veil of nightly skies,

To thy bright canopy the mourner flies:

Once bright, thy Silence lull'd my frame to rest,
And Sleep my soul with gentle visions blest;
Now wakeful Grief disdains her mild controul,
Dark is the night, but darker is my Soul.
Ye warring Winds of Heav'n your fury urge,
To me congenial sounds your wintry Dirge:
Swift as your wings my happier days have past,
Keen as your storms is Sorrow's chilling blast;
To Tempests thus expos'd my Fate has been,
Piercing like yours, like yours, alas! unseen.

1805.

[PIGNUS AMORIS.']

I.

As by the fix'd decrees of Heaven,
'Tis vain to hope that Joy can last;

The dearest boon that Life has given,
To me is-visions of the past.

1. [From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time printed.]

2.

For these this toy of blushing hue
I prize with zeal before unknown,
It tells me of a Friend I knew,
Who loved me for myself alone,

3.

It tells me what how few can say
Though all the social tie commend;
Recorded in my heart 'twill lay,'

It tells me mine was once a Friend.

4.

Through many a weary day gone by,
With time the gift is dearer grown ;
And still I view in Memory's eye

That teardrop sparkle through my own.

5.

And heartless Age perhaps will smile,

Or wonder whence those feelings sprung;

Yet let not sterner souls revile,

For Both were open, Both were young.

1. [For the irregular use of “lay" for "lie," compare “The Adieu" (st. 10, 1. 4, p. 241), and the much-disputed line, “And dashest him to earth-there let him lay" (Childe Harold, canto iv. st. 180).]

6.

And Youth is sure the only time,

When Pleasure blends no base alloy;

When Life is blest without a crime,

And Innocence resides with Joy.

7.

Let those reprove my feeble Soul,

Who laugh to scorn Affection's name;
While these impose a harsh controul,
All will forgive who feel the same.

8.

Then still I wear my simple toy,

With pious care from wreck I'll save it ;
And this will form a dear employ

For dear I was to him who gave it.

? 1806.

[A WOMAN'S HAIR.1]

OH! little lock of golden hue

In gently waving ringlet curl'd,
By the dear head on which you grew,

I would not lose you for a world.

1. [These lines are preserved in MS. at Newstead, with the following memorandum in Miss Pigot's handwriting: Copied from the fly-leaf in a vol. of my Burns' books, which is written in pencil by himself." They have hitherto been printed as stanzas 5 and 6 of the lines "To a Lady," etc., p. 212.]

Not though a thousand more adorn

The polished brow where once you shone,
Like rays which gild a cloudless sky.

Beneath Columbia's fervid zone.

1806.

STANZAS TO JESSY.1

I.

THERE is a mystic thread of life

So dearly wreath'd with mine alone,
That Destiny's relentless knife

At once must sever both, or none.

i. - a cloudless morn.-[Ed. 1832.]

1. ["Stanzas to Jessy" have often been printed, but were never acknowledged by Byron, or included in any authorized edition of his works. They are, however, unquestionably genuine. They appeared first in Monthly Literary Recreations (July, 1807), a magazine published by B. Crosby & Co., Stationers' Court. Crosby was London agent for Ridge, the Newark bookseller, and, with Longman and others, "sold" the recently issued Hours of Idleness. The same number of Monthly Literary Recreations (for July, 1807) contains Byron's review of Wordsworth's Poems (2 vols., 1807), and a highly laudatory notice of Hours of Idleness. The lines are headed "Stanzas to Jessy," and are signed "George Gordon, Lord Byron." They were republished in 1824, by Knight and Lacy, in vol. v. of the three supplementary volumes of the Works, and again in the same year by John Bumpus and A. Griffin, in their Miscellaneous Poems, etc. A note which is prefixed to these issues, "The following stanzas were addressed by Lord Byron to his Lady, a few months before their separation," and three variants in the text, make it unlikely that the pirating editors were acquainted with the text of the magazine. The MS.

2.

There is a Form on which these eyes

Have fondly gazed with such delight-
By day, that Form their joy supplies,
And Dreams restore it, through the night.

3.

There is a Voice whose tones inspire
Such softened feelings in my breast,'

I would not hear a Seraph Choir,

Unless that voice could join the rest.

4.

There is a Face whose Blushes tell

Affection's tale upon the cheek,

But pallid at our fond farewell,

Proclaims more love than words can speak.

66

i. Such thrills of Rapture.—[Knight and Lacy, 1824, v. 56.] (British Museum, Eg. MSS. No. 2332) is signed "George Gordon, Lord Byron," but the words George Gordon, Lord" are in another hand, and were probably added by Crosby. The following letter (together with a wrapper addressed, "Mr. Crosby, Stationers' Court," and sealed in red wax with Byron's arms and coronet) is attached to the poem :

"July 21, 1807.

"SIR, "I have sent according to my promise some Stanzas for Literary Recreations. The insertion I leave to the option of the Editors. They have never appeared before. I should wish to know whether they are admitted or not, and when the work will appear, as I am desirous of a copy.

66

Etc., etc., BYRON. "P.S.-Send your answer when convenient."]