If not the goblet pass unquaff'd, From all her troubled visions free, For wert thou vanish'd from my mind, For well I know, that such had been A blessing never meant for me; March 14. 1812. ON A CORNELIAN HEART WHICH WAS BROKEN.(1) ILL-FATED Heart! and can it be That thou shouldst thus be rent in twain? Have years of care for thine and thee Alike been all employ'd in vain? Yet precious seems each shatter'd part, And every fragment dearer grown, Since he who wears thee feels thou art A fitter emblem of his own. March 16. 1812. LINES TO A LADY WEEPING. (2) WEEP, daughter of a royal line, Could wash a father's fault away! (1) [We know not whether the reader should understand the cornelian heart of these lines to be the same with that of which some notices are given in Vol. VII. p. 99. — E.] (2) [This impromptu owed its birth to an on dit, that the late Princess Charlotte of Wales burst into tears on hearing that the Whigs had found it impossible to put together a cabinet, at the period of Mr. Perceval's death. They were appended to the first edition of the " Corsair," and excited a sensation, as it is called, marvellously disproportionate to their length,-or, we may add, their merit. The ministerial prints raved for two months on end, in the most foul-mouthed vituperation of the poet, and all that belonged to him. the Morning Post even announced a motion in the House of Lords" and all this," Lord Byron writes to Mr. Moore, "as Bedreddin in the Arabian Nights remarks, for making a cream tart with pepper: how odd, that eight lines should have given birth, I really think, to eight thousand!"-E.] Weep-for thy tears are Virtue's tears- March, 1812. THE CHAIN I GAVE. (From the Turkish.) THE chain I gave was fair to view, These gifts were charm'd by secret spell That chain was firm in every link, But not to bear a stranger's touch; That lute was sweet-till thou could'st think In other hands its notes were such. Let him, who from thy neck unbound Restring the chords, renew the clasp. When thou wert changed, they alter'd too; 'Tis past to them and thee adieu False heart, frail chain, and silent lute. LINES WRITTEN ON A BLANK LEAF OF THE "PLEASURES OF MEMORY." ABSENT or present, still to thee, My friend, what magic spells belong! As all can tell, who share, like me, In turn thy converse (1), and thy song. But when the dreaded hour shall come How fondly will she then repay And blend, while ages roll away, April 19. 1812. (1) ["When Rogers does talk, he talks well; and, on all subjects of taste, his delicacy of expression is pure as his poetry. If you enter his househis drawing-room-his library-you of yourself say, this is not the dwelling of a common mind. There is not a gem, a coin, a book thrown aside on his chimney-piece, his sofa, his table, that does not bespeak an almost fastidious elegance in the possessor." B. Diary, 1813.-E.] (2) [The reader will recall Collins's exquisite lines on the tomb of Thom"In yonder grave a Druid lies," &c.—E.] son: ADDRESS, SPOKEN AT THE OPENING OF DRURY-LANE THEATRE, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10. 1812. (1) In one dread night our city saw, and sigh'd, Ye who beheld, (oh! sight admired and mourn'd, Whose radiance mock'd the ruin it adorn'd!) Through clouds of fire the massy fragments riven, Like Israel's pillar, chase the night from heaven; Saw the long column of revolving flames Shake its red shadow o'er the startled Thames, (2) While thousands, throng'd around the burning dome, Shrank back appall'd, and trembled for their home, (1) [The theatre in Drury Lane, which was opened, in 1747, with Dr. Johnson's masterly address, beginning, "When Learning's triumph o'er her barbarous foes First rear'd the Stage, immortal Shakspeare rose," and witnessed the last glories of Garrick, having fallen into decay, was rebuilt in 1794. The new building perished by fire in 1811; and the Managers, in their anxiety that the opening of the present edifice should be distinguished by some composition of at least equal merit, advertised in the newspapers for a general competition. Scores of addresses, not one tolerable, showered on their desk, and they were in sad despair, when Lord Holland interfered, and, not without difficulty, prevailed on Lord Byron to write these verses-" at the risk," as he said, "of offending a hundred scribblers and a discerning public." The admirable jeu d'esprit of the Messrs. Smith will long preserve the memory of the " Rejected Addresses."-E.] (2) ["By the bye, the best view of the said fire (which I myself saw from a house-top in Covent Garden) was at Westminster Bridge, from the reflection of the Thames." B. to Lord H.-E.] |