And the deaf tyranny of Fate,
The ruling principle of Hate,
Which for its pleasure doth create
The things it may annihilate,
Refused thee even the boon to die :
The wretched gift eternity
Was thine-and thou hast borne it well.
All that the Thunderer wrung from thee
Was but the menace which flung back
Of him the torments of thy rack;
The fate thou didst so well foresee,
But would not to appease him tell;
And in thy Silence was his Sentence,
And in his Soul a vain repentance,
· And evil dread so ill dissembled,
That in his hand the lightnings trembled.

III.

Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,

To render with thy precepts less

The sum of human wretchedness,
And strengthen Man with his own mind;
But baffled as thou wert from high,
Still in thy patient energy,
In the endurance, and repulse

Of thine impenetrable Spirit,
Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse,

A mighty lesson we inherit : Thou art a symbol and a sign

To Mortals of their fate and force ;
Like thee, Man is in part divine,

A troubled stream from a pure sou ce;
And Man in portions can foresee
His own funereal destiny ;
His wretchedness, and his resistance,
And his sad unallied existence :
To which his Spirit may oppose
Itself--and equal to all woes,

And a firm will, and a deep sense, Which even in torture can descry

Its own concenter'd recompense, Triumphant where it dares defy, And making Death a Victory.

DIODATI, July 1816.

SONNET ON CHILLON.

Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind!

Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art,

For there thy habitation is the heart –
The heart which love of thee alone can bind;
And when thy sons to fetters are consign'd-

To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom,

Their country conquers with their martyrdom, And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind. Chillon ! thy prison is a holy place,

And thy sad floor an altar-for 'twas trod, Until his very steps have left a trace

Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, By Bonnivard! May none those marks efface !

For they appeal from tyranny to God.

STANZAS FOR MUSIC.

1.

They say that Hope is happiness ;

Put genuine Love must prize the past,
And Memory wakes the thoughts that bless :

They rose the first—they set the last;

II.

And all that Memory loves the most

Was once our only Hope to be, And all that Hope adored and lost

Hath melted into Memory.

III.

Alas! it is delusion all :

The future cheats us from afar,
Nor can we be what we recall,

Nor dare we think on what we are.

So, WE'LL GO NO MORE A ROVING.

1.

So, we'll go no more a roving

So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,

And the moon be still as bright.

II.

For the sword outwears its sheath,

And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,

And love itself have rest.

III.

Though the night was made for loving,

And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a roving
By the light of the moon.

(1817.)

STANZAS WRITTEN ON THE ROAD BETWEEN FLORENCE

AND PISA.

Oh, talk not to me of a name great in story ;
The days of our youth are the days of our glory ;
And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty
Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty.
What are garlands and crowns to the brow that is wrinkled ?
'Tis but as a dead flower with May-dew besprinkled.
Then away with all such from the head that is hoary !
What care I for the wreaths that can only give glory!

VOL. IV.

Oh FAME!-if I e'er took delight in thy praises,
'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases,
Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover,
She thought that I was not unworthy to love her.

There chiefly I sought thee, there only I found thee ;
Her glance was the best of the rays that surround thee;
When it sparkled o'er aught that was bright in my s.ory,
I knew it was love, and I felt it was glory.

November, 1821.

STANZAS.

Could Love for ever
Run like a river,
And Time's endeavour

Be tried in vain-
No other pleasure
With this could measure ;
And like a treasure

We'd hug the chain.
But since our sighing
Ends not in dying,
And, form’d for flying,

Love plumes his wing ;
Then for this reason

Let's love a season ;
But let that season be only Spring.

When lovers parted
Feel broken-hearted,
And, all hopes thwarted,

Expect to die ;
A few years older,
Ah! how much colder
They might behold her

For whom they sigh !

When link'd together,
In every weather,
They pluck Love's feather

From out his wing-
He'll stay for ever,

But sadly shiver
Without his plumage, when past the Spring.

(1819.)

DONNA JULIA'S LETTER.

[From Don Juan. Canto I.]

They tell me 'tis decided you depart :

'Tis wise—'tis well, but not the less a pain ; I have no further claim on your young heart,

Mine is the victim, and would be again :
To love too much has been the only art

I used ;-I write in haste, and if a stain
Be on this sheet, 'tis not what it appears ;
My eyeballs burn and throb, but have no tears.

I loved, I love you ; for this love have lost

State, station, heaven, mankind's, my own esteem, And yet cannot regret what it hath cost,

So dear still the memory of that dream ;
Yet, if I name my guilt, 'tis not to boast,

None can deem harshlier of me than I deem :
I trace this scrawl because I cannot rest-
I've nothing to reproach or to request.

Man's love is of man's life a thing apart,

'Tis woman's whole existence ; man may range The court, camp, church, the vessel, and the mart;

Sword, gown, gain, glory, offer in exchange
Pride, fame, ambition, to fill up his heart,

And few there are whom these cannot estrange ;
Men have all these resources, we but one,
To love again, and be again undone.