On The Death of a Young Lady
*
Cousin to the Author, and very dear to him
by George Gordon, Lord Byron
(composed: 1802)
(In Fugitive Pieces - 1806)
(In Hours of Idleness - 1807)
1
- Hushd are the winds, and still the evening gloom,
- Not een a zephyr wanders through the grove,
- Whilst I return, to view my Margarets tomb,
- And scatter flowers on the dust I love.
2
- Within this narrow cell reclines her clay,
- That clay, where once such animation beamd;
- The King of Terrors seized her as his prey,
- Not worth nor beauty have her life redeemd.
3
- Oh! could that King of Terrors pity feel,
- Or heaven reverse the dread decree of fate,
- Not here the mourner would his grief reveal,
- Not here the muse her virtues would relate.
4
- But wherefore weep? Her matchless spirit soars
- Beyond where splendid shines the orb of day;
- And weeping angels lead her to those bowers
- Where endless pleasures virtuous deeds repay.
5
- And shall presumptuous mortals Heaven arraign,
- And, madly, godlike Providence accuse?
- Ah! no, far fly from me attempts so vain;
- Ill neer submission to my God refuse.
6
- Yet is remembrance of those virtues dear,
- Yet fresh the memory of that beauteous face;
- Still they call forth my warm affections tear,
- Still in my heart retain their wonted place.
*
(Poem was about Byron's first cousin, Margaret Parker,
who died at around age 15 "in consequence of a fall which
injured her spine and induced consumption.")
[Byron's Journal, Detached Thoughts (15 October 1821 - 18 May 1822)]
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