To Woman
by George Gordon, Lord Byron

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


  1.   Woman! experience might have told me,
  2.   That all must love thee who behold thee:
  3.      Surely experience might have taught
  4.      Thy firmest promises are naught:
  5.   But, placed in all thy charms before me,
  6.   All I forget, but to adore thee.
  7.      Oh memory! Thou choicest blessing
  8.      When join’d with hope, when still possessing;
  9.   But how much cursed by every lover
  10.   When hope is fled and passion’s over.
  11.      Woman, that fair and fond deceiver,
  12.   How throbs the pulse when first we view
  13.   The eye that rolls in glossy blue,
  14.      Or sparkles black, or mildly throws
  15.      A beam from under hazel brows!
  16.   How quick we credit every oath,
  17.   And hear her plight the willing troth!
  18.      Fondly we hope’t will last for aye,
  19.      When, lo! she changes in a day.
  20.   This record will for ever stand,
  21.   “Woman, thy vows are traced in sand.”

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