Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 4.djvu/186

That such as I could love—who blushed to hear
To less than monarchs that thou couldst be dear,230
Go! tell thy brother, that my heart, untamed
By grief—years—weariness—and it may be
A taint of that he would impute to me—
From long infection of a den like this,
Where the mind rots congenial with the abyss,—
Adores thee still;—and add—that when the towers
And battlements which guard his joyous hours
Of banquet, dance, and revel, are forgot,
Or left untended in a dull repose,
This—this—shall be a consecrated spot!240
But Thou—when all that Birth and Beauty throws
Of magic round thee is extinct—shalt have
One half the laurel which o'ershades my grave.^[1]
No power in death can tear our names apart,
As none in life could rend thee from my heart.^[2]
Yes, Leonora! it shall be our fate
To be entwined^[3] for ever—but too late!^[4]

1. ["Tasso, notwithstanding the criticisms of the Cruscanti, would have been crowned in the Capitol, but for his death." Reply to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (Ravenna, March 15, 1820), Letters, 1900, iv. Appendix IX. p. 487.]

2. As none in life could

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   wrench wring

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   thee from my heart.—[MS.].

3. [Compare—

   "From Life's commencement to its slow decline
   We are entwined."

   Epistle to Augusta, stanza xvi. lines 6, 7, vide ante, p. 62.]
4. [The Apennines, April 20, 1817.]