Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/446

404 CI.

Was she as those who love their lords, or they

Who love the lords of others? such have been

Even in the olden time, Rome's annals say.

Was she a matron of Cornelia's mien,

Or the light air of Egypt's graceful Queen,

Profuse of joy—or 'gainst it did she war,

Inveterate in virtue? Did she lean

To the soft side of the heart, or wisely bar

Love from amongst her griefs?—for such the affections are.

CII.

Perchance she died in youth—it may be, bowed

With woes far heavier than the ponderous tomb

That weighed upon her gentle dust: a cloud

Might gather o'er her beauty, and a gloom

In her dark eye, prophetic of the doom

Heaven gives its favourites —early death—yet shed

A sunset charm around her, and illume

With hectic light, the Hesperus of the dead,

Of her consuming cheek the autumnal leaf-like red.