Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/63

Rh 6.

Oh! when, my ador'd, in the tomb will they place me,

Since, in life, love and friendship for ever are fled?

If again in the mansion of death I embrace thee,

Perhaps they will leave unmolested—the dead. 1805.

TO CAROLINE.

1.

I hear you express an affection so warm,

Ne'er think, my belov'd, that I do not believe;

For your lip would the soul of suspicion disarm,

And your eye beams a ray which can never deceive.

2.

Yet still, this fond bosom regrets, while adoring,

That love, like the leaf, must fall into the sear,

That Age will come on, when Remembrance, deploring,

Contemplates the scenes of her youth, with a tear;

3.

That the time must arrive, when, no longer retaining

Their auburn, those locks must wave thin to the breeze

When a few silver hairs of those tresses remaining,

Prove nature a prey to decay and disease.