The sun that cheers, the storm that lowers,i Shall never more be thine. The silence of that dreamless sleep ii. I envy now too much to weep; Nor need I to repine, That all those charms have passed away I might have watched through long decay. 5. The flower in ripened bloom unmatched Must fall the earliest prey; iii. Though by no hand untimely snatched, 6. I know not if I could have borne iv. The night that followed such a morn Thy day without a cloud hath passed," i. The cloud that cheers •—[MS.] ii. The sweetness of that silent deep.—[MS.] iii. The flower in beauty's bloom unmatched Is still the earliest prey.—[MS.] The rose by some rude fingers snatched, Is earliest doomed to fade.-[MS. erased.] iv. I do not deem I could have borne.--[MS.] v. But night and day of thine are passed, And thou wert lovely to the last; Destroyed --[MS. erased.] As stars that shoot along the sky. 7. As once I wept, if I could weep, To gaze, how fondly! on thy face, Uphold thy drooping head; And show that love, however vain, 8. Yet how much less it were to gain, Through dark and dread Eternity iii. And more thy buried love endears February, 1812. [First published, Childe Harold, 1812 (Second Edition).] i. As stars that seem to quit the sky.-[MS.] ii. O how much less it were to gain, All beauteous though they be.-[MS.] iii. Through dark and dull Eternity.—[MS.] |