To The Duke of Dorset
by George Gordon, Lord Byron
(composed: 1805)
(From Hours of Idleness - 1807)
- Dorset! whose early steps with mine have strayd,
- Exploring every path of Idas glade;
- Whom still affection taught me to defend
- And made me less a tyrant than a friend
- Though the harsh custom of our youthful band
- Bade thee obey, and gave me to command;
- Thee, on whose head a few short years will shower
- The gift of riches and the pride of power;
- Een now a name illustrious is thine own,
- Renownd in rank, nor far beneath the throne.
- Yet, Dorset, let not this seduce thy soul
- To shun fair science, or evade control,
- Though passive tutors, fearful to dispraise
- The titled child, whose future breath may raise,
- View ducal errors with indulgent eyes,
- And wink at faults they tremble to chastise
- When youthful parasites, who bend the knee
- To wealth, their golden idol, not to thee,
- And even in simple boyhoods opening dawn
- Some slaves are found to flatter and to fawn,
- When these declare, that pomp alone should wait
- On one by birth predestined to be great;
- That books were only meant for drudging fools,
- That gallant spirits scorn the common rules;
- Believe them not;they point the path to shame,
- And seek to blast the honours of thy name.
- Turn to the few in Idas early throng,
- Whose souls disdain not to condemn the wrong;
- Or if, amidst the comrades of thy youth,
- None dare to raise the sterner voice of truth,
- Ask thine own heart; twill bid thee, boy, forbear;
- For well I know that virtue lingers there.
- Yes! I have markd thee many a passing day,
- But now new scenes invite me far away;
- Yes! I have markd within that generous mind
- A soul, if well matured, to bless mankind.
- Ah! though myself by nature haughty, wild,
- Whom Indiscretion haild her favourite child;
- Though every error stamps me for her own,
- And dooms my fall, I fain would fall alone;
- Though my proud heart no precept now can tame,
- I love the virtues which I cannot claim.
- Tis not enough, with other sons of power
- To gleam tile lambent meteor of an hour;
- To swell some peerage page in feeble pride,
- With long-drawn names that grace no page beside;
- Then share with titled crowds the common lot
- In life just gazed at, in the grave forgot;
- While naught divides thee from the vulgar dead,
- Except the dull cold stone that hides thy head,
- The mouldering scutcheon, or the heralds roll,
- That well-emblazond but neglected scroll,
- Where lords, unhonourd, in the tomb may find
- One spot, to leave a worthless name behind.
- There sleep, unnoticed as the gloomy vaults
- That veil their dust, their follies, and their faults,
- A race, with old armorial lists oerspread,
- In records destined never to be read.
- Fain would I view thee, with prophetic eyes,
- Exalted more among the good and wise,
- A glorious and a long career pursue,
- As first in rank, the first in talent too:
- Spurn every vice, each little meanness shun;
- Not Fortunes minion, but her noblest son.
- Turn to the annals of a former day;
- Bright are the deeds thine earlier sires play.
- One, though a Courtier, lived a man of worth,
- And calld, proud boast! the British drama forth.
- Another view, not less renownd for wit;
- Alike for Courts, and camps, or senates fit;
- Bold in the field, and favourd by the Nine;
- In every splendid part ordaind to shine;
- Far, far distingishd ishd from the glittering throng,
- The pride of princes, and the boast of song.
- Such were thy fathers; thus preserve their name;
- Not heir to titles only, but to fame.
- The hour draws nigh, a few brief days will close,
- To me, this little scene of joys and woes;
- Each knell of Time now warns me to resign
- Shades where Hope, Peace, and Friendship all were mine:
- Hope, that could vary like the rainbows hue,
- And gild their pinions as the moments flew;
- Peace, that reflection never frownd away,
- By dreams of ill to cloud some future day;
- Friendship, whose truth let childhood only tell;
- Alas! they love not long, who love so well.
- To these adieu! nor let me linger oer
- Scenes haild, as exiles hall their native shore,
- Receding, slowly through the dark-blue deep,
- Beheld by eyes that mourn, yet cannot weep.
- Dorset, farewell! I will not ask one part
- Of sad remembrance in so young a heart;
- The coming morrow from thy youthful mind
- Will sweep my name, nor leave a trace behind.
- And yet, perhaps, in some maturer year,
- Since chance has thrown us in the self same sphere,
- Since the same senate, nay, the same debate,
- May one day claim our suffrage for the state,
- We hence may meet, and pass each other by
- With faint regard, or cold and distant eye.
- For me, in future, neither friend nor foe,
- A stranger to thyself thy weal or woe,
- With thee non more saain I hope to trace
- The recollection of our early race;
- No more, as once, in social hours rejoice,
- Or hear, unless in crowds, thy well-known voice:
- Still, if the wishes of a heart untaught
- To veil those feelings which perchance it ought,
- If thesebut let me cease the lengthend strain,
- Oh! if these wishes arc not breathed in vain,
- The guardian seraph who directs thy fate
- Will leave thee glorious, as he found thee great.
|
|