Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 3.djvu/74

44 As stars that shoot along the sky

Shine brightest as they fall from high.

7. As once I wept, if I could weep,

My tears might well be shed,

To think I was not near to keep

One vigil o'er thy bed;

To gaze, how fondly! on thy face,

To fold thee in a faint embrace,

Uphold thy drooping head;

And show that love, however vain,

Nor thou nor I can feel again.

8. Yet how much less it were to gain,

Though thou hast left me free,

The loveliest things that still remain,

Than thus remember thee!

The all of thine that cannot die

Through dark and dread Eternity

Returns again to me,

And more thy buried love endears

Than aught, except its living years. February, 1812. [First published, Childe Harold, 1812 (Second Edition).] Variants