Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/327

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STANZAS TO A LADY, ON LEAVING ENGLAND.
285

6.

Then the season of youth and its vanities past,
For refuge we fly to the goblet at last;
There we find—do we not?—in the flow of the soul,
That truth, as of yore, is confined to the bowl.


7.

When the box of Pandora was open'd on earth,
And Misery's triumph commenc'd over Mirth,
Hope was left,—was she not?—but the goblet we kiss,
And care not for Hope, who are certain of bliss.


8.

Long life to the grape! for when summer is flown,
The age of our nectar shall gladden our own:
We must die—who shall not?—May our sins be forgiven,
And Hebe shall never be idle in Heaven.

[First published, 1809.]


STANZAS TO A LADY, ON LEAVING ENGLAND.[1]

1.

'Tis done—and shivering in the gale
The bark unfurls her snowy sail;
And whistling o'er the bending mast,
Loud sings on high the fresh'ning blast;
And I must from this land be gone,
Because I cannot love but one.


  1. To Mrs. Musters.—[MS.] To —— on Leaving England.—[Imit. and Transl., p. 227.]