VERSES FOUND IN A SUMMERHOUSE AT HALES-OWEN WHEN Dryden's fool, 'unknowing what he sought,' His hours in whistling spent, for want of thought,' This guiltless oaf his vacancy of sense In Cymon's manner waste their leisure hours, The offended guests would not, with blushing, see These fair green walks disgraced by infamy. Severe the fate of modern fools, alas! When vice and folly mark them as they pass. Like noxious reptiles o'er the whiten'd wall, The filth they leave still points out where they crawl. [First published, 1832.] 'REMEMBER THEE! REMEMBER!' [Lady Caroline Lamb 'called one morning at her quondam lover's apartments. His lordship was from home; but finding Vathek on the table, the lady wrote in the first page of the volume the words, "Remember me!" Byron immediately wrote under the ominous warning these two stanzas.' - MEDWIN, Conversations of Lord Byron, 1824, pp. 329, 330.] REMEMBER thee! remember thee! Till Lethe quench life's burning stream Remorse and Shame shall cling to thee, And haunt thee like a feverish dream! Remember thee! Aye, doubt it not. ΤΟ ΤΙΜΕ TIME! on whose arbitrary wing Hail thou! who on my birth bestow'd Those boons to all that know thee known; Yet better I sustain thy load, For now I bear the weight alone. Birds, yet in freedom, shun the net Your hearts shall burn, your hopes expire. A bird of free and careless wing Who ne'er have loved, and loved in vain, The cold repulse, the look askance, In flattering dreams I deem'd thee mine; My light of life! ah, tell me why 20 And art thou changed, and canst thou hate? 'Tis this which breaks the heart thou griev- I know the length of Love's forever, est, Too well thou lov'st-too soon thou leavest. In And just expected such a freak. peace we met, in peace we parted, In peace we vow'd to meet again, And though I find thee fickle-hearted No pang of mine shall make thee vain. |