The Works of Lord Byron, vol 1 | Page 9

there, high waving o'er the park,
The elm I clamber'd for your
sake.
8.

These times are past, our joys are gone,
You leave me, leave this
happy vale;
These scenes, I must retrace alone;
Without thee, what
will they avail?
9.
Who can conceive, who has not prov'd,
The anguish of a last embrace?

When, torn from all you fondly lov'd,
You bid a long adieu to
peace.
10.
This is the deepest of our woes,
For this these tears our cheeks bedew;

This is of love the final close,
Oh, God! the fondest, last adieu!
1805.
[Footnote 1: To Maria--[4to]]
FRAGMENTS OF SCHOOL EXERCISES:
FROM THE
"PROMETHEUS VINCTUS" OF AESCHYLUS,
[Greek: Maedam o panta nemon, 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.
Oft shall the sacred victim
fall,
In sea-girt Ocean's mossy hall;
My voice shall raise no impious
strain,
'Gainst him who rules the sky and azure main.
...
How different now thy joyless fate,
Since first Hesione thy bride,

When plac'd aloft in godlike state,
The blushing beauty by thy side,

Thou sat'st, while reverend Ocean smil'd,
And mirthful strains the
hours beguil'd;
The Nymphs and Tritons danc'd around,
Nor yet thy

doom was fix'd, nor Jove relentless frown'd, [2]
HARROW, December 1, 1804.
[Footnote 1: The Greek heading does not appear in the Quarto, nor in
the three first Editions.]
[Footnote 2: "My first Harrow verses (that is, English, as exercises), a
translation of a chorus from the 'Prometheus' of Æschylus, were
received by Dr. Drury, my grand patron (our headmaster), but coolly.
No one had, at that time, the least notion that I should subside into

poetry."--'Life', p. 20. The lines are not a translation but a loose
adaptation or paraphrase of part of a chorus of the 'Prometheus Vinctus',
I, 528, 'sq.']
LINES
WRITTEN IN "LETTERS OF AN ITALIAN NUN AND AN
ENGLISH GENTLEMAN, BY J. J. ROUSSEAU; [1] FOUNDED
ON FACTS."
"Away, away,--your flattering arts
May now betray some simpler
hearts;
And you_ will _smile at their believing,
And they_ shall
_weep at your deceiving."
[Footnote 1: A second edition of this work, of which the title is, Letters,
etc., translated from the French of Jean Jacques Rousseau, was
published in London, in 1784. It is, probably, a literary forgery.]
ANSWER TO THE FOREGOING, [i] ADDRESSED TO MISS----.
Dear simple girl, those flattering arts,
(From which thou'dst guard
frail female hearts,)[ii]
Exist but in imagination,
Mere phantoms of
thine own creation; [iii]
For he who views that witching grace,
That
perfect form, that lovely face,
With eyes admiring, oh! believe me,

He never wishes to deceive thee:
Once in thy polish'd mirror glance
[iv]
Thou'lt there descry that elegance
Which from our sex demands

such praises,
But envy in the other raises.--
Then he who tells thee
of thy beauty, [v]
Believe me, only does his duty:
Ah! fly not from
the candid youth;
It is not flattery,--'tis truth. [vi]
July, 1804.
[Footnote i: Answer to the above. [4to] ]
[Footnote ii: From which you'd. [4to] ]
[Footnote iii:
_Mere phantoms of your own creation;
For he who sees_. [4to]]
[Footnote iv:
_Once let you at your mirror glance
You'll there descry that
elegance,_ [4to]]
[Footnote v:
Then he who tells you of your beauty. [4to]]
[Footnote vi:
It is not flattery, but truth. [4to]]
ON A CHANGE OF MASTERS AT A GREAT PUBLIC
SCHOOL. [1]
Where are those honours, IDA! once your own,
When Probus fill'd
your magisterial throne?
As ancient Rome, fast falling to disgrace,

Hail'd a Barbarian in her Cæsar's place,
So you, degenerate, share as
hard a fate,
And seat Pomposus_ where your _Probus sate.
Of
narrow brain, yet of a narrower soul, [i]
Pomposus holds you in his
harsh controul;
Pomposus, by no social virtue sway'd,
With florid
jargon, and with vain parade;
With noisy nonsense, and new-fangled

rules,
(Such as were ne'er before enforc'd in schools.) [ii]
Mistaking
pedantry_ for _learning's laws,
He governs, sanction'd but by
self-applause;
With him the same dire fate, attending Rome,

Ill-fated Ida! soon must stamp your doom:
Like her o'erthrown, for
ever lost to fame,
No trace of science left you, but the name,
HARROW, July, 1805.
[Footnote 1: In March, 1805, Dr. Drury, the Probus of the piece, retired
from the Head-mastership of Harrow School, and was succeeded by Dr.
Butler, the Pomposus. "Dr. Drury," said Byron, in one of his
note-books, "was the best, the kindest (and yet strict, too) friend I ever
had; and I look upon him still as a father." Out of affection to his late
preceptor, Byron advocated the election of Mark Drury to the vacant
post, and hence his dislike of the successful candidate. He was
reconciled to Dr. Butler before departing for Greece, in 1809, and in his
diary he says, "I treated him rebelliously, and have been sorry ever
since." (See allusions in and notes to "Childish Recollections," pp.
84-106, and especially note I, p. 88, notes I and 2, p. 89, and note I, p.
91.)] ]
[Footnote i:
----but of a narrower soul.--[4to]]
[Footnote ii:
Such