Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/229

Rh TO A LADY.

! had my Fate been join'd with thine,

As once this pledge appear'd a token,

These follies had not, then, been mine,

For, then, my peace had not been broken.

2.

To thee, these early faults I owe,

To thee, the wise and old reproving:

They know my sins, but do not know

'Twas thine to break the bonds of loving.

3.

For once my soul, like thine, was pure,

And all its rising fires could smother;

But, now, thy vows no more endure,

Bestow'd by thee upon another.