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Lines On Hearing That Lady Byron Was Ill.[91]

by George Gordon Byron

And thou wert sad - yet I was not with thee;

And thou wert sick, and yet I was not near;

Methought that Joy and Health alone could be

Where I was not - and pain and sorrow here!

And is it thus? - it is as I foretold,

And shall be more so; for the mind recoils

Upon itself, and the wrecked heart lies cold,

While Heaviness collects the shattered spoils.

It is not in the storm nor in the strife

We feel benumbed, and wish to be no more,

But in the after-silence on the shore,

When all is lost, except a little life.

I am too well avenged! - but 'twas my right;

Whate'er my sins might be, thou wert not sent

To be the Nemesis who should requite - [92]

Nor did Heaven choose so near an instrument.

Mercy is for the merciful! - if thou

Hast been of such, 'twill be accorded now.

Thy nights are banished from the realms of sleep: - [93]

Yes! they may flatter thee, but thou shall feel

A hollow agony which will not heal,

For thou art pillowed on a curse too deep;

Thou hast sown in my sorrow, and must reap

The bitter harvest in a woe as real!

I have had many foes, but none like thee;

For 'gainst the rest myself I could defend,

And be avenged, or turn them into friend;

But thou in safe implacability

Hadst nought to dread - in thy own weakness shielded,

And in my love, which hath but too much yielded,

And spared, for thy sake, some I should not spare;

And thus upon the world - trust in thy truth,

And the wild fame of my ungoverned youth -

On things that were not, and on things that are -

Even upon such a basis hast thou built

A monument, whose cement hath been guilt!

The moral Clytemnestra of thy lord,[94]

And hewed down, with an unsuspected sword,

Fame, peace, and hope - and all the better life

Which, but for this cold treason of thy heart,

Might still have risen from out the grave of strife,

And found a nobler duty than to part.

But of thy virtues didst thou make a vice,

Trafficking with them in a purpose cold,

For present anger, and for future gold -

And buying others' grief at any price.[95]

And thus once entered into crooked ways,

The early truth, which was thy proper praise,[96]

Did not still walk beside thee - but at times,

And with a breast unknowing its own crimes,

Deceit, averments incompatible,

Equivocations, and the thoughts which dwell

In Janus-spirits - the significant eye

Which learns to lie with silence - the pretext[97]

Of prudence, with advantages annexed -

The acquiescence in all things which tend,

No matter how, to the desired end -

All found a place in thy philosophy.

The means were worthy, and the end is won -

I would not do by thee as thou hast done!

September, 1816.

[First published, New Monthly Magazine, August, 1832, vol. xxxv. pp. 142, 143.]