Away, Away,
Ye Notes of Woe

by George Gordon, Lord Byron

(composed: 6 December 1811)


    1
  1.   Away, away, ye notes of woe!
  2.      Be silent, thou once soothing strain,
  3.   Or I must flee from hence—for, oh!
  4.      I dare not trust those sounds again.
  5.   To me they speak of brighter days—
  6.      But lull the chords, for now, alas!
  7.   I must not think, I may not gaze,
  8.      On what I am—on what I was.

    2
  9.   The voice that made those sounds more sweet
  10.      Is hush’d and all their charms are fled
  11.   And now their softest notes repeat
  12.      A dirge, an anthem o’er the dead!
  13.   Yes, “Thyrza” yes, they breathe of thee,
  14.      Beloved dust! Since dust thou art;
  15.   And all that once was harmony
  16.      Is worse than discord to my heart!

    3
  17.   ’Tis silent all!—but on my ear
  18.      The well remember’d echoes thrill;
  19.   I hear a voice I would not hear,
  20.      A voice that now might well be still;
  21.   Yet oft my doubting soul ’t will shake;
  22.      Even slumber owns its gentle tone,
  23.   Till consiousness will vainly wake
  24.      To listen, though the dream be flown.

    4
  25.   Sweet Thyrza! Waking as in sleep,
  26.      Thou art but now a lovely dream;
  27.   A star that trembled o’er the deep,
  28.      Then turn’d from earth its tender beam.
  29.   But he who through life’s dreary way
  30.      Must pass, when heaven is veil’d in wrath,
  31.   Will long lament the vanish’d ray
  32.      That scatter’d gladness o’er his path.

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