Forgetful of its struggles past, E'en Pain itself should smile on thee. 6. But vain the wish-for Beauty still Will shrink, as shrinks the ebbing breath; And Woman's tears, produced at will, Deceive in life, unman in death. 7. Then lonely be my latest hour, Without regret, without a groan; For thousands Death hath ceased to lower, 8. "Aye but to die, and go,” alas! Where all have gone, and all must go! To be the nothing that I was Ere born to life and living woe! 9. Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen, 'Tis something better not to be. [First published, Childe Harold, 1812 (Second Edition).] AND THOU ART DEAD, AS YOUNG AND FAIR.i "Heu, quanto minus est cum reliquis versari quam tui meminisse ! "1 I. AND thou art dead, as young and fair As aught of mortal birth; And form so soft, and charms so rare, ii. Too soon returned to Earth! And o'er the spot the crowd In carelessness or mirth, tread may There is an eye which could not brook A moment on that grave to look. i. Stanzas.-[Editions 1812-1831.] ii. Are mingled with the Earth.-[MS.] Were never meant for Earth.—[MS. erased.] iii. iii. Unhonoured with the vulgar dread.-[MS. erased.] 1. ["The Lovers' Walk is terminated with an ornamental urn, inscribed to Miss Dolman, a beautiful and amiable relation of Mr. Shenstone's, who died of the small-pox, about twenty-one years of age, in the following words on one side : On the other side "Peramabili consobrina M.D.' "Ah! Maria! pvellarvm elegantissima! hev qvanto minvs est (From a Description of the Leasowes, by A. Dodsley; Poetical Works of William Shenstone [1798], p. xxix.)] 2. I will not ask where thou liest low," Nor gaze upon the spot; There flowers or weeds at will may grow, It is enough for me to prove That what I loved, and long must love, To me there needs no stone to tell, 3. Yet did I love thee to the last As fervently as thou," Who didst not change through all the past, And canst not alter now. The love where Death has set his seal, Nor falsehood disavow: vii. And, what were worse, thou canst not see Or wrong, or change, or fault in me.i 4. The better days of life were ours; i. I will not ask where thou art laid, Nor look upon the name.—[MS. erased.Į ii. So I shall know it not.—[MS. erased.] iii. Like common dust can rot.-[MS.] iv. I would not wish to see nor touch.-[MS. erased.] v. As well as warm as thou.-[MS. erased.] vi. MS. transposes lines 5 and 6 of stanza 3. vii. Nor frailty disavow.—[MS.] vill. viii. Nor canst thou fair and faultless see.- --[MS. crased.] ix. Nor wrong, nor change, nor fault in me.-[MS.] The sun that cheers, the storm that lowers,i Shall never more be thine. The silence of that dreamless sleep it. I envy now too much to weep; Nor need I to repine, That all those charms have passed away 5. The flower in ripened bloom unmatched iii. Though by no hand untimely snatched, And yet it were a greater grief Since earthly eye but ill can bear 6. I know not if I could have borne i To see thy beauties fade; The night that followed such a morn Thy day without a cloud hath passed,▾ i. The cloud that cheers -.--[MS.] 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" Shine brightest as they fall from high. 7. As once I wept, if I could weep, My tears might well be shed, 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 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.] |