To a Lady
Who Presented The Author With The Velvet Band Which Bound Her Tresses

by George Gordon, Lord Byron

(composed: 1806)
(From Hours of Idleness - 1807)


    1
  1.   This Band, which bound thy yellow hair,
  2.      Is mine, sweet girl! Thy pledge of love;
  3.   It claims my warmest, dearest care,
  4.      Like relics left of saints above.

    2
  5.   Oh! I will wear it next my heart;
  6.      ’Twill blind my soul in bonds to thee;
  7.   From me again ’twill ne’er depart,
  8.      But mingle in the grave with me.

    3
  9.   The dew I gather from thy lip
  10.      Is not so dear to me as this;
  11.   That I but for a moment sip,
  12.      And banquet on a transient bliss:

    4
  13.   This will recall each youthful scene,
  14.      E’en when our lives are on the wane;
  15.   The leaves of Love will still be green
  16.      When Memory bids them bud again.


    5
  17.   Oh! little lock of golden hue,
  18.      In gently waving ringlet curl’d
  19.   By the dear head on which you grow,
  20.      I would not lose you for a world.

    6
  21.   Not though a thousand more adorn
  22.      The polish’d brow where once you shone,
  23.   Like rays which gild a cloudless morn,
  24.      Beneath Columbia’s fervid zone.

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