Had bards as many realms as rhymes,[lower-roman 1]
Thy charms might raise new Antonies.[lower-roman 2]
5.
Though Fate forbids such things to be,[lower-roman 3]
Yet, by thine eyes and ringlets curled!
I cannot lose a world for thee,
But would not lose thee for a World.[decimal 1]
November 14, 1809.
[MS. M. First published, Childe Harold, 1812 (4to).]
THE SPELL IS BROKE, THE CHARM IS FLOWN![lower-roman 4]
WRITTEN AT ATHENS, JANUARY 16, 1810.
The spell is broke, the charm is flown!
Thus is it with Life's fitful fever:
We madly smile when we should groan;
Delirium is our best deceiver.
Each lucid interval of thought
Recalls the woes of Nature's charter;
And He that acts as wise men ought,
But lives—as Saints have died—a martyr.
[MS. M. First published, Childe Harold, 1812 (4to).]
Variants
Notes
- ↑ [Compare [A Woman's Hair] stanza 1, line 4, "I would not lose you for a world."—Poetical Works, 1898, i. 233.]