The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero)/Poetry/Volume 3/Remember thee! Remember thee!

by George Gordon Byron

REMEMBER THEE! REMEMBER THEE!^{[decimal 1]}

1.
Remember thee! remember thee!
⁠Till Lethe quench life's burning stream
Remorse and Shame shall cling to thee,
⁠And haunt thee like a feverish dream!

2.
Remember thee! Aye, doubt it not.
⁠Thy husband too shall think of thee:
By neither shalt thou be forgot,
⁠Thou false to him, thou fiend to me!^{[decimal 2]}
[First published, Conversations of Lord Byron, 1824.]

 

Notes

1. [The sequel of a temporary liaison formed by Lord Byron during his career in London, occasioned this impromptu. On the cessation of the connection, the fair one [Lady C. Lamb: see Letters, 1898, ii. 451] called one morning at her quondam lover's apartments. His Lordship was from home; but finding Vathek on the table, the lady wrote in the first page of the volume the words, "Remember me!" Byron immediately wrote under the ominous warning these two stanzas.—Conversations of Lord Byron, by Thomas Medwin, 1824, pp. 329, 330. In Medwin's work the euphemisms false and fiend are represented by asterisks.]
2. ["To Bd., Feb. 22, 1813.
   "'Remember thee,' nay—doubt it not—
   ⁠Thy Husband too may 'think' of thee!
   By neither canst thou be forgot,
   ⁠Thou false to him—thou fiend to me!
   
   

   "'Remember thee'? Yes—yes—till Fate
   ⁠In Lethe quench the guilty dream.
   Yet then—e'en then— Remorse and Hate
   ⁠Shall vainly quaff the vanquished stream."
   From a MS. (in the possession of Mr. Hallam
   Murray) not in Byron's handwriting.]