The Works of Lord Byron Volume III Part 2

Our guides are gone, our hope is lost, And lightnings, as they play, But show where rocks our path have crost, Or gild the torrent's spray.

3.

Is yon a cot I saw, though low?

When lightning broke the gloom-- How welcome were its shade!--ah, no!

'Tis but a Turkish tomb.

4.

Through sounds of foaming waterfalls, I hear a voice exclaim-- My way-worn countryman, who calls On distant England's name.

5.

A shot is fired--by foe or friend?

Another--'tis to tell The mountain-peasants to descend, And lead us where they dwell.

6.

Oh! who in such a night will dare To tempt the wilderness?

And who 'mid thunder-peals can hear Our signal of distress?

7.

And who that heard our shouts would rise To try the dubious road?

Nor rather deem from nightly cries That outlaws were abroad.

8.

Clouds burst, skies flash, oh, dreadful hour!

More fiercely pours the storm!

Yet here one thought has still the power To keep my bosom warm.

9.

While wandering through each broken path, O'er brake and craggy brow; While elements exhaust their wrath, Sweet Florence, where art thou?

10.

Not on the sea, not on the sea-- Thy bark hath long been gone: Oh, may the storm that pours on me, Bow down my head alone!

11.

Full swiftly blew the swift Siroc, When last I pressed thy lip; And long ere now, with foaming shock, Impelled thy gallant s.h.i.+p.

12.

Now thou art safe; nay, long ere now Hast trod the sh.o.r.e of Spain; 'Twere hard if aught so fair as thou Should linger on the main.

13.

And since I now remember thee In darkness and in dread, As in those hours of revelry Which Mirth and Music sped;

14.

Do thou, amid the fair white walls, If Cadiz yet be free, At times from out her latticed halls Look o'er the dark blue sea;

15.

Then think upon Calypso's isles, Endeared by days gone by; To others give a thousand smiles, To me a single sigh.

16.

And when the admiring circle mark The paleness of thy face, A half-formed tear, a transient spark Of melancholy grace,

17.

Again thou'lt smile, and blus.h.i.+ng shun Some c.o.xcomb's raillery; Nor own for once thou thought'st on one, Who ever thinks on thee.

18.

Though smile and sigh alike are vain, When severed hearts repine, My spirit flies o'er Mount and Main, And mourns in search of _thine_.

_October_ 11, 1809.

[MS. M. First published, _Childe Harold_, 1812 (4to).]

STANZAS WRITTEN IN Pa.s.sING THE AMBRACIAN GULF.[i]

1.

Through cloudless skies, in silvery sheen, Full beams the moon on Actium's coast: And on these waves, for Egypt's queen, The ancient world was won and lost.

2.

And now upon the scene I look, The azure grave of many a Roman; Where stern Ambition once forsook His wavering crown to follow _Woman_.

3.

Florence! whom I will love as well (As ever yet was said or sung, Since Orpheus sang his spouse from h.e.l.l) Whilst _thou_ art _fair_ and _I_ am _young_;

4.

Sweet Florence! those were pleasant times, When worlds were staked for Ladies' eyes: Had bards as many realms as rhymes,[j]

Thy charms might raise new Antonies.[k]

5.