STANZAS TO AUGUSTA
By
Lord Byron
1816
&/\&/\&
When all around grew drear and dark,
And Reason half withheld her ray ---
And Hope but shed a dying spark
Which more misled my lonely way;
In that deep midnight of the mind,
And that internal strife of heart,
When dreading to be deemed too kind,
The weak despair --- the cold depart;
When Fortune changed --- and Love fled far,
And Hatred's shaft flew thick and fast,
Thou wert the solitary star
Which rose and set not to the last.
Oh ! blest be thine unbroken light !
That watched me as a Seraph's eye,
And stood between me and the night,
For ever shining sweetly nigh.
And when the cloud upon us came,
Which strove to blacken o'er thy ray ---
Then purer spread its gentle flame,
And dashed the darkness all away.
Still may thy spirit dwell on mine,
And teach it what to brave or brook ---
There's more in one soft word of thine
Than in the world's defied rebuke.
Thou stood'st, as stands a lovely tree,
That still unbroke, though gently bent,
Still waves with fond fidelity
Its boughs above a monument.
The winds might rend --- the skies might pour,
But there thou wert --- and still wouldst be
Devoted in the stormiest hour
To shed thy weeping leaves o'er me.
But thou and thine shall know no blight,
Whatever fate on me may fall;
For Heaven in sunshine will requite
The kind --- and thee the most of all.
Then let the ties of baffled love
Be broken --- thine will never break;
Thy heart can feel --- but will not move;
Thy soul, though soft, will never shake.
And these, when all was lost beside,
Were found and still are fixed in thee; ---
And bearing still a breast so tried,
Earth is no desert --- ev'n to me.
&/\&/\&