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When, to their airy hall, my Fathers' voice
Shall call my spirit, joyful in their choice;
When, pois'd upon the gale, my form shall ride,
Or, dark in mist, descend the mountain's side;...

Since the refinement of this polish'd age
Has swept immoral raillery from the stage;
Since taste has now expung'd licentious wit,
Which stamp'd disgrace on all an author writ;...

"But if any old Lady, Knight, Priest, or Physician,
Should condemn me for printing a second edition;
If good Madam Squintum my work should abuse,
May I venture to give her a smack of my muse?"
...

Dear simple girl, those flattering arts,
(From which thou'dst guard frail female hearts,)
Exist but in imagination,
Mere phantoms of thine own creation;
For he who views that witching grace,...

1.

Doubtless, sweet girl, the hissing lead,
Wafting destruction near thy charms,
And hurtling[1] o'er thy lovely head,
Has fill'd that breast with fond alarms.

2.
...

I.

Oh, thou, in Hellas deemed of heavenly birth,
Muse, formed or fabled at the minstrel's will!
Since shamed full oft by later lyres on earth,
Mine dares not call thee from thy sacred hill:...

I.

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs;
A palace and a prison on each hand:
I saw from out the wave her structures rise
As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand:...

Ah! - What should follow slips from my reflection;
Whatever follows ne'ertheless may be
As _' propos_ of hope or retrospection,
As though the lurking thought had follow'd free....

When amatory poets sing their loves
In liquid lines mellifluously bland,
And pair their rhymes as Venus yokes her doves,
They little think what mischief is in hand;...

I want a hero: an uncommon want,
When every year and month sends forth a new one,
Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one;...

If from great nature's or our own abyss
Of thought we could but snatch a certainty,
Perhaps mankind might find the path they miss -
But then 't would spoil much good philosophy....

Nothing so difficult as a beginning
In poesy, unless perhaps the end;
For oftentimes when Pegasus seems winning
The race, he sprains a wing, and down we tend,...

{Greek: Astaer prin men elampes eni tsuoisin hepsos.}

{Plato's Epitaph (Epig. Gr'c., Jacobs, 1826, p. 309), quoted by Diog. Laertins.}


Oh, Friend! for ever lov'd, for ever dear!...

1.

Thou Power! who hast ruled me through Infancy's days,
Young offspring of Fancy, 'tis time we should part;
Then rise on the gale this the last of my lays,...

1.

Fill the goblet again! for I never before
Felt the glow which now gladdens my heart to its core;
Let us drink! - who would not? - since, through life's varied round,...

[Greek: Maedam o panta nem_on, K.T.L_] [1]


Great Jove! to whose Almighty Throne
Both Gods and mortals homage pay,
Ne'er may my soul thy power disown,
Thy dread behests ne'er disobey....

First published in Moore's 'Letters and Journals of Lord Byron', 1830, i. 56


1.

Hills of Annesley, Bleak and Barren,
Where my thoughtless Childhood stray'd,...

Introduction To Francesca Of Rimini.

...

[Greek: Mesonuktiois poth hopais, k.t.l.] [1]


Ode 3.


'Twas now the hour when Night had driven
Her car half round yon sable heaven;
Bo'tes, only, seem'd to roll...

---- "Ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum
Reddere qu' ferrum valet, exsors ipsa secandi."

HOR. 'De Arte Poet'., II. 304 and 305.


"Rhymes are difficult things - they are stubborn things, Sir."
...