Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 3.djvu/60

The world befits a busy brain,—
I'll hie me to its haunts again.
But if, in some succeeding year,^{[decimal 1]}
When Britain's "May is in the sere,"
Thou hear'st of one, whose deepening crimes
Suit with the sablest of the times,
Of one, whom love nor pity sways,
Nor hope of fame, nor good men's praise;
One, who in stern Ambition's pride,
Perchance not blood shall turn aside;
One ranked in some recording page
With the worst anarchs of the age,
Him wilt thou know—and knowing pause,
Nor with the effect forget the cause.

Newstead Abbey, Oct. 11, 1811.
[First published, Life, 1830.]

 

TO THYRZA.^{[lower-roman 1][decimal 2]}

Without a stone to mark the spot,^{[decimal 3]}
⁠And say, what Truth might well have said,^{[lower-roman 2]}

Variants

1. On the death of —— Thyrza.—[MS.]
2. And soothe if such could soothe thy shade.—[MS. erased.]

Notes

1. [Hodgson stipulated that the last twelve lines should be omitted, but Moore disregarded his wishes, and included the poem as it stands in his Life. A marginal note ran thus: "N.B. The poor dear soul meant nothing of this. F.H."—Memoir of Rev. Francis Hodgson, 1878, i. 212.]
2. [The following note on the identity of Thyrza has been communicated to the Editor:—
   ⁠"The identity of Thyrza and the question whether the person addressed under this name really existed, or was an imaginary being, have given rise to much speculation and discussion of a more or less futile kind.
   ⁠"This difficulty is now incapable of definite and authoritative
3. [For the substitution in the present issue of continuous lines for stanzas, Byron's own authority and mandate may be quoted. "In reading the 4th vol.... I perceive that piece 12 ('Without a Stone') is made nonsense of (that is, greater nonsense than usual) by dividing it into stanzas 1, 2, etc."—Letter to John Murray, August 26, 1815, Letters, 1899, iii. 215.]