The Works of Lord Byron Volume III Part 87

STANZAS TO AUGUSTA.[438]

When all around grew drear and dark,[sn]

And reason half withheld her ray-- And Hope but shed a dying spark Which more misled my lonely way; In that deep midnight of the mind, And that internal strife of heart, When dreading to be deemed too kind, The weak despair--the cold depart; When Fortune changed--and Love fled far,[so]

And Hatred's shafts flew thick and fast, Thou wert the solitary star[sp]

Which rose and set not to the last.[sq]

Oh! blest be thine unbroken light!

That watched me as a Seraph's eye, And stood between me and the night, For ever s.h.i.+ning sweetly nigh.

And when the cloud upon us came,[sr]

Which strove to blacken o'er thy ray--[ss]

Then purer spread its gentle flame,[st]

And dashed the darkness all away.

Still may thy Spirit dwell on mine,[su]

And teach it what to brave or brook-- There's more in one soft word of thine Than in the world's defied rebuke.

Thou stood'st, as stands a lovely tree,[sv]

That still unbroke, though gently bent, Still waves with fond fidelity Its boughs above a monument.

The winds might rend--the skies might pour, But there thou wert--and still wouldst be Devoted in the stormiest hour To shed thy weeping leaves o'er me.

But thou and thine shall know no blight, Whatever fate on me may fall; For Heaven in suns.h.i.+ne will requite The kind--and thee the most of all.

Then let the ties of baffled love Be broken--thine will never break; Thy heart can feel--but will not move; Thy soul, though soft, will never shake.

And these, when all was lost beside, Were found and still are fixed in thee:-- And bearing still a breast so tried, Earth is no desert--ev'n to me.

[First published, _Poems_, 1816.]

FOOTNOTES:

[432] {537} ["He there (Byron, in his _Memoranda_) described, and in a manner whose sincerity there was no doubting, the swell of tender recollections, under the influence of which, as he sat one night musing in the study, these stanzas were produced,--the tears, as he said, falling fast over the paper as he wrote them."--_Life_, p. 302.

It must have been a fair and _complete_ copy that Moore saw (see _Life_, p. 302, note 3). There are no tear-marks on this (the first draft, sold at Sotheby's, April 11, 1885) draft, which must be the _first_, for it is incomplete, and every line (almost) tortured with alterations.

"Fare Thee Well!" was printed in Leigh Hunt's _Examiner_, April 21, 1816, at the end of an article (by L. H.) ent.i.tled "Distressing Circ.u.mstances in High Life." The text there has two readings different from that of the pamphlet, viz.--

_Examiner:_ "Than the soft one which embraced me."

Pamphlet: "Than the one which once embraced me."

_Examiner:_ "Yet the thoughts we cannot bridle."

Pamphlet: "But," etc.

--_MS. Notes taken by the late J. d.y.k.es Campbell at Sotheby's, April 18, 1890, and re-transcribed for Mr. Murray, June 15, 1894._

A final proof, dated April 7, 1816, was endorsed by Murray, "Correct 50 copies as early as you can to-morrow."]

[rh] The motto was prefixed in _Poems_, 1816.

[ri] {538} _Thou my breast laid bare before thee_.--[MS. erased.]

[rj] _Not a thought is pondering on thee_.--[MS, erased.]

[433] [Lines 13-20 do not appear in an early copy dated March 18, 1816.

They were added on the margin of a proof dated April 4, 1816.]

[rk] {539} Net result of many alterations.

[rl] _And the lasting thought_----.--[MS. erased.]

[rm] ----_of deadlier sorrow_.--[MS. erased.]

[rn] _Every future night and morrow_.--[MS. erased.]

[ro] _Still thy heart_----.--[MS. erased.]

[rp] _All my follies_----.--[MS. erased.]

[rq] ----_which not the world could bow_.--[MS.]

[rr] _Falls at once_----.--[MS. erased.]

[rs] {540} _Tears and sighs are idler still_.--[MS. erased.]

[rt] _Fare thee well--thus lone and blighted_.--[MS. erased.]

[ru] _A Sketch from Life._--[MS. M.]

[434] ["I send you my last night's dream, and request to have 50 copies (for private distribution) struck off. I wish Mr. Gifford to look at them; they are from life."--Letter to Murray, March 30, 1816.

"The original MS. of Lord Byron's Satire, 'A Sketch from Private Life,'

written by his Lords.h.i.+p, 30th March, 1816. Given by his Lords.h.i.+p to me on going abroad after his separation from Lady Byron, John Hanson. To be carefully preserved." (This MS. omits lines 19-20, 35-36, 55-56, 65-70, 77-78, 85-92.)

A copy ent.i.tled, "A sketch from private Life," dated March 30, 1816, is in Mrs. Leigh's handwriting. The corrections and additions are in Byron's handwriting.

A proof dated April 2, 1816, is endorsed by Murray, "Correct with most particular care and print off 50 copies, and keep standing."]

[rv] _Promoted thence to comb_----[MS. M. erased.]

[rw] ----_early governess_.--[MS. M.]

[rx] ----_but that pure spirit saved her heart_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[ry] _Vain was each effort_----.--[MS. M.]

[rz]

_Much Learning madden--when with scarce a peer_ _She soared through science with a bright career_-- _Nor talents swell_----.--[MS. M.]

[sa] ----_bigotry prevoke_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[sb] _Serenely purest of the things that live_.--[MS. M.]

[sc] {542} _The trusty burthen of my honest song_.--[MS. M.]