Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 4.djvu/81

Rh Thou art a symbol and a sign

To Mortals of their fate and force;

Like thee, Man is in part divine,

A troubled stream from a pure source;

And Man in portions can foresee

His own funereal destiny;

His wretchedness, and his resistance,

And his sad unallied existence:

To which his Spirit may oppose

Itself—an equal to all woes—

And a firm will, and a deep sense,

Which even in torture can descry

Its own concentered recompense,

Triumphant where it dares defy,

And making Death a Victory. Diodati, July, 1816. [First published, Prisoner of Chillon, etc., 1816.]

A FRAGMENT.

I remount the river of my years

To the first fountain of our smiles and tears,

I would not trace again the stream of hours

Between their outworn banks of withered flowers,