But the tear which now burns on my cheek may impart The deep thoughts that dwell in that silence of heart.

Too brief for our passion, too long for our peace,

Were those hours-can their joy or their bitterness cease?

We repent, we abjure, we will break from our chain,— We will part, we will fly to-unite it again!

3.

Oh! thine be the gladness, and mine be the guilt!"
Forgive me, adored one !-forsake, if thou wilt ;-
But the heart which is thine shall expire undebased iii.
And man shall not break it-whatever thou mayst.iv.

4.

And stern to the haughty, but humble to thee,

This soul, in its bitterest blackness, shall be:"

And our days seem as swift, and our moments more

sweet,

With thee by my side, than with worlds at our feet.

i. We have loved-and oh, still, my adored one we love!
Oh the moment is past, when that Passion might cease.--
[MS. erased.]
ii. The thought may be madness-the wish may be guilt.-
[MS. erased.]

iii.

iv.

But I cannot repent what we ne'er can recall.
But the heart which is thine would disdain to recall.-

[MS. erased.]

though I feel that thou mayst.-[MS. L. erased.]

v. This soul in its bitterest moments shall be,
And our days run as swift-and our moments more sweet,
With thee at my side, than the world at my feet.—[MS.]

5.1

One sigh of thy sorrow, one look of thy love,"1.
Shall turn me or fix, shall reward or reprove ;
And the heartless may wonder at all I resign-
Thy lip shall reply, not to them, but to mine.

May 4, 1814. [First published, Letters and Journals, 1830, i. 554.]

ADDRESS INTENDED TO BE RECITED AT THE CALEDONIAN MEETING.1

WHO hath not glowed above the page where Fame
Hath fixed high Caledon's unconquered name;
The mountain-land which spurned the Roman chain,
And baffled back the fiery-crested Dane,
Whose bright claymore and hardihood of hand
No foe could tame-no tyrant could command?
That race is gone-but still their children breathe,
And Glory crowns them with redoubled wreath:
O'er Gael and Saxon mingling banners shine,
And, England! add their stubborn strength to thine.

i. And thine is that love which I will not forego,
Though the price which I pay be Eternity's woe.-

[MS. erased.] .-[MS. erased.]

ii. One tear of thy sorrow, one smile 1. [The "Caledonian Meeting," at which these lines were, or were intended to be, recited (see Life, p. 254), was a meeting of subscribers to the Highland Society, held annually in London, in support of the [Royal] Caledonian Asylum “for educating and supporting children of soldiers, sailors, and marines, natives of Scotland." "To soothe," says the compiler of the Report for 1814, p. 4, "by the assurance that their offspring will be reared in virtue and comfort, the minds of those brave men, through whose exposure to hardship and danger the independence of the Empire has been preserved, is no less an act of sound policy than of gratitude."]

The blood which flowed with Wallace flows as free,
But now 'tis only shed for Fame and thee!
Oh! pass not by the northern veteran's claim,
But give support-the world hath given him fame!

The humbler ranks, the lowly brave, who bled
While cheerly following where the Mighty led-1
Who sleep beneath the undistinguished sod
Where happier comrades in their triumph trod,
To us bequeath-'tis all their fate allows-
The sireless offspring and the lonely spouse:
She on high Albyn's dusky hills may raise
The tearful eye in melancholy gaze,
Or view, while shadowy auguries disclose
The Highland Seer's anticipated woes,
The bleeding phantom of each martial form.
Dim in the cloud, or darkling in the storm; 2
While sad, she chaunts the solitary song,
The soft lament for him who tarries long-
For him, whose distant relics vainly crave
The Coronach's wild requiem to the brave!

'Tis Heaven-not man-must charm away the woe, Which bursts when Nature's feelings newly flow;

1. [As an instance of Scottish gallantry in the Peninsular War it is sufficient to cite the following list of "casualties" at the battle of Vittoria, June 21, 1813 : "The battalion [the seventy-first Highland Light Infantry] suffered very severely, having had I field officer, I captain, 2 lieutenants, 6 sergeants, I bugler, and 78 rank and file killed; I field officer, 3 captains, 7 lieutenants, 13 sergeants, 2 buglers, and 255 rank and file were wounded."—Historical Record of the 71st Highland Light Infantry, by Lieut. Henry J. T. Hildyard, 1876, p. 91.]

2. [Compare Temora, bk. vii., "The king took his deathful spear, and struck the deeply-sounding shield. Ghosts filed on every side, and rolled their gathered forms on the wind.-Thrice from the winding vale arose the voices of death."—Works of Ossian, 1765, ii. 160.]

STANZAS ON THE DEATH OF SIR PETER PARKER.

Yet Tenderness and Time may rob the tear
Of half its bitterness for one so dear;
A Nation's gratitude perchance may spread
A thornless pillow for the widowed head;
May lighten well her heart's maternal care,
And wean from Penury the soldier's heir;
Or deem to living war-worn Valour just 1
Each wounded remnant-Albion's cherished trust-
Warm his decline with those endearing rays,
Whose bounteous sunshine yet may gild his days—
So shall that Country-while he sinks to rest-
His hand hath fought for-by his heart be blest!

1

417

May, 1814.

[First published, Letters and Journals, 1830, i. 559.]

ELEGIAC STANZAS ON THE DEATH OF SIR PETER PARKER, BART.2

I.

THERE is a tear for all that die,3

A mourner o'er the humblest grave;
But nations swell the funeral cry,

And Triumph weeps above the brave.

1. [The last six lines are printed from the MS.]

2. [Sir P. Parker fell in August, 1814, in his twenty-ninth year, whilst leading a party from his ship, the Menelaus, at the storming of the American camp near Baltimore. He was Byron's first cousin (his father, Christopher Parker (1761-1804), married Charlotte Augusta, daughter of Admiral the Hon. John Byron); but they had never met since boyhood. (See letter to Moore, Letters, 1899, iii. 150; see too Letters, i. 6, note 1.) The stanzas were included in Hebrew Melodies, 1815, and in the Ninth Edition of Childe Harold, 1818.]

3. [Compare Tasso's sonnet

66 Questa Tomba non è, che non è morto," etc.
Rime Eroiche, Parte Seconda, No. 38, Opere di
Torquato Tasso, Venice, 1736, vi. 169.]

VOL. III.

2 E

2.

For them is Sorrow's purest sigh
O'er Ocean's heaving bosom sent :
In vain their bones unburied lie,

All earth becomes their monument !

3.

A tomb is theirs on every page,

An epitaph on every tongue:
The present hours, the future age,
For them bewail, to them belong.

4.

For them the voice of festal mirth

Grows hushed, their name the only sound; While deep Remembrance pours to Worth The goblet's tributary round.

5.

A theme to crowds that knew them not,
Lamented by admiring foes,

Who would not share their glorious lot?
Who would not die the death they chose?

6.

And, gallant Parker! thus enshrined

Thy life, thy fall, thy fame shall be;

And early valour, glowing, find

A model in thy memory.

7.

But there are breasts that bleed with thee

In woe, that glory cannot quell;

And shuddering hear of victory,

Where one so dear, so dauntless, fell.