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POEMS 1809-1813.
Dear words! on which my heart had doted,
If Youth could neither fade nor die.
If Youth could neither fade nor die.
2.
To Death even hours like these must roll,
Ah! then repeat those accents never;
Or change "my Life!" into "my Soul!"
Which, like my Love, exists for ever.
[MS. M.]
To Death even hours like these must roll,
Ah! then repeat those accents never;
Or change "my Life!" into "my Soul!"
Which, like my Love, exists for ever.
[MS. M.]
ANOTHER VERSION.
You call me still your Life.—Oh! change the word—
Life is as transient as the inconstant sigh:
Say rather I'm your Soul; more just that name,
For, like the soul, my Love can never die.
You call me still your Life.—Oh! change the word—
Life is as transient as the inconstant sigh:
Say rather I'm your Soul; more just that name,
For, like the soul, my Love can never die.
[Stanzas 1, 2 first published, Childe Harold,1814 (Seventh Edition).
"Another Version," first published, 1832.]
"Another Version," first published, 1832.]
Notes
For 'Life' in future say, 'My Soul,'
Which like my love exists for ever."
Which like my love exists for ever."
