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Ev'n still conflicting passions shake his soul,

And bid him drain the dregs of Pleasure's bowl;

But, pall'd with vice, he breaks his former chain,

And what was once his bliss appears his bane.

[First published, June, 1807.]

TO MARION.1

MARION! why that pensive brow?
What disgust to life hast thou?
Change that discontented air;
Frowns become not one so fair.
Tis not Love disturbs thy rest,
Love's a stranger to thy breast:
He, in dimpling smiles, appears,
Or mourns in sweetly timid tears;
Or bends the languid eyelid down,
But shuns the cold forbidding frown.
Then resume thy former fire,
Some will love, and all admire!
While that icy aspect chills us,
Nought but cool Indiff'rence thrills us.
Would'st thou wand'ring hearts beguile,
Smile, at least, or seem to smile;
Eves like thine were never meant
To hide their orbs in dark restraint;
Spite of all thou fain would'st say,
Sill in truant beams they play.
Iny lips but here my modest Muse
Her impulse chaste must needs refuse:
She blushes, curt'sies, frowns, — in
short She

Dreads lest the Subject should transport me;

And flying off, in search of Reason,
Brings Prudence back in proper season.
All I shall, therefore, say (whate'er
I think, is neither here nor there,)
Is, that such lips, of looks endearing,
Were form'd for better things than
sneering.

[The MS. of this poem is preserved at New"This was to Harriet Maltby, afterards Mrs. Nichols, written upon her meeting Irun, and "being cold, silent, and reserved to by the advice of a Lady with whom she was g: quite foreign to her usual manner, was gay, lively, and full of flirtation." Nate by Miss E. Pigot.)]

Of soothing compliments divested,
Advice at least's disinterested;
Such is my artless song to thee,
From all the flow of Flatt'ry free;
Counsel like mine is as a brother's,
My heart is given to some others;
That is to say, unskill'd to cozen,
It shares itself among a dozen.

Marion, adieu! oh, pr'ythee slight

not

This warning, though it may delight not;

And, lest my precepts be displeasing, To those who think remonstrance teasing,

At once I'll tell thee our opinion,
Concerning Woman's soft Dominion:
Howe'er we gaze, with admiration,
On eyes of blue or lips carnation;
Howe'er the flowing locks attract us,
Howe'er those beauties may distract us;
Still fickle, we are prone to rove,
These cannot fix our souls to love;
It is not too severe a stricture,
To say they form a pretty picture;
But would'st thou see the secret chain,
Which binds us in your humble train,
To hail you Queens of all Creation,
Know, in a word, 'tis Animation.

BYRON, January 10, 1807. [First published, June, 1807.]

OSCAR OF ALVA.'

I.

How sweetly shines, through azure skies,

The lamp of Heaven on Lora's shore; Where Alva's hoary turrets rise,

And hear the din of arms no more!

2.

But often has yon rolling moon,

On Alva's casques of silver play'd; And view'd, at midnight's silent noon, Her chiefs in gleaming mail array'd:

1 The catastrophy of this tale was suggested by the story of "Jeronymo and Lorenzo," in the first volume of Schiller's Armenian, or the Ghost-Seer. It also bears some resemblance to a scene in the third act of Macbeth.

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