86
JEUX D'ESPRIT AND MINOR POEMS, 1798-1824.
Such is this maddening fascination grown,
So strong thy magic or so weak am I.
[First published, Murray's Magazine, February, 1887, vol. i. p. 146.]
ON THIS DAY I COMPLETE MY THIRTY-SIXTH YEAR.[1]
1.
'T is time this heart should be unmoved,
Since others it hath ceased to move:
Yet, though I cannot be beloved,
Still let me love!
2.
My days are in the yellow leaf;
The flowers and fruits of Love are gone;
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone!
- ↑ ["This morning Lord Byron came from his bedroom into the apartment where Colonel Stanhope and some friends were assembled, and said with a smile—'You were complaining, the other day, that I never write any poetry now:—this is my birthday, and I have just finished something, which, I think, is better than what I usually write.' He then produced these noble and affecting verses, which were afterwards found written in his journals, with only the following introduction: 'Jan. 22; on this day I complete my 36th year.'"—A Narrative of Lord Byron's Last Journey to Greece, 1825, p. 125, by Count Gamba. In the Morning Chronicle, October 29, 1824, the lines are headed, "Lord Byron's Latest Verses," and are prefaced by the following note: " We have been indebted to a friend for the following immortal verses, the last he ever composed. Four of the lines have already appeared in an article in the Westminster Review" ("Lord Byron in Greece," July, 1824, vol. ii. p. 227).]
