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George Gordon Byron - Epistle To Augusta
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                         I.
   My sister! my sweet sister! if a name
   Dearer and purer were, it should be thine;
   Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim
   No tears, but tenderness to answer mine:
   Go where I will, to me thou art the same­
   A loved regret which I would not resign,
   There yet are two things in my des­tiny, -
A world to roam through, and a home with thee.
 
                         II.
   The first were nothing-had I still the last,
   It were the haven of my happiness;
   But other claims and other ties thou hast,
   And mine is not the wish to make them less.
   A strange doom is thy father`s son`s, and past
   Recalling, as it lies beyond redress;
   Reversed for him our grandsire`s fate of yore,
He had no rest at sea, nor I on shore.
 
                         III.
   If my inheritance of storms hath been
   In other elements, and on the rocks
   Of perils, overlook`d or unforeseen,
   I have sustain`d my share of worldly shocks,
   The fault was mine; nor do I seek to screen
   My errors with defensive paradox;
   I have been cunning in mine overthrow,
The careful pilot of my proper woe.
 
                         IV.
   Mine were my faults, and mine be their reward.
   My whole life was a contest, since the day
   That gave me being, gave me that which marr`d
   The gift,- a fate, or will, that walk`d astray;
   And I at times have found the struggle hard,
   And thought of shaking off my bonds of clay:
   But now I fain would for a time survive,
If but to see what next can well arrive.
 
                         V.
   Kingdoms and empires in my little day 
   I have outlived, and yet I am not old;
   And when I look on this, the petty spray
   Of my own years of trouble, which have roll`d
   Like a wild bay of breakers, melts away
   Something-I know not what-does still uphold
   A spirit of slight patience; not in vain,
Even for its own sake, do we purchase pain.
 
                         VI.
   Perhaps the workings of defiance stir
   Within me - or perhaps a cold despair,
   Brought on when ills habitually recur,
   Perhaps a kinder clime, or purer air,
   (For even to this may change of soul refer,
   And with light armour we may learn to bear,)
   Have taught me a strange quiet, which was not
The chief companion of a calmer lot.
 
                         VII.
   I feel almost at times as I have felt
   In happy childhood; trees, and flowers, and brooks,
   Which do remember me of where I dwelt
   Ere my young mind was sacrificed to books,
   Come as of yore upon me, and can melt
   My heart with recognition of their looks;
   And even at moments I could think I see
Some living thing to love-but none like thee.
 
                         VIII.
   Here are the Alpine landscapes which create
   A fund for contemplation;- to admire
   Is a brief feeling of a trivial date;
   But something worthier do such scenes inspire:
   Here to be lonely is not desolate`
   For much I view which I could most desire,
   And, above all, a lake I can behold
Lovelier, not dearer, than our own of old.
 
                         IX.
   Oh that thou wert but with me! - but I grow
   The fool of my own wishes, and forget
   The solitude which I have vaunted so
   Has lost its praise in this but one regret;
   There may be others which I less may show
   I am not of the plaintive mood, and yet
   I feel an ebb in my philosophy,
And the tide rising in my alter`d eye.
 
                         X.
   I did remind thee of our own dear Lake,
   By the old Hall which may be mine no more.
   Leman`s is fair; but think not I forsake
   The sweet remembrance of a dearer shore:
   Sad havoc Time must with my memory make,
   Ere that or thou can fade these eyes before;
   Though, like all things which I have loved they are
Resign `d For ever, or divided far.
 
                         XI.
   The world is all before me; I but ask
   Of Nature that with which she will comply
   It is but in her summer`s sun to bask,
   To mingle with the quiet of her sky,
   To see her gentle face without a mask,
   And never gaze on it with apathy.
   She was my early friend, and now shall be
My sister - till I look again on thee.
 
                         XII.
   I can reduce all feelings but this one;
   And that I would not; for at length I see
   Such scenes as those wherein my life begun.
   The earliest - even the only paths for me -
   Had I but sooner learnt the crowd to shun,
   I had been better than I now can be;
   The passions which have torn me would have slept;
I had not suffer`d, and thou hadst not wept.
 
                         XIII.
   With false Ambition what had I to do?
   Little with Love, and least of all with Fame;
   And yet they came unsought, and with me grew,
   And made me all which they can make -a name.
   Yet this was not the end I did pursue;
   Surely I once beheld a nobler aim.
   But all is over - I am one the more
To baffled millions which have gone before.
 
                         XIV.
   And for the future, this world`s future may
   From me demand but little of my care;
   I have outlived myself by many a day;
   Having survived so many things that were;
   My years have been no slumber, but the prey
   Of ceaseless vigils; for I had the share
   Of life which might have fill`d a century,
Before its fourth in time had pass`d me by.
 
                         XV.
   And for the remnant which may be to come
   I am content; and for the past I feel
   Not thankless,-for within the crowded sum
   Of struggles, happiness at times would steal,
   And for the present, I would not benumb
   My feelings further. - Nor shall I conceal
   That with all this I still can look around,
And worship Nature with a thought profound.
 
                         XVI.
   For thee, my own sweet sister, in thy heart
   I know myself secure, as thou in mine;
   We were and are - I am, even as thou art
   Beings who ne`er each other can resign;
   It is the same, together or apart,
   From life`s commencement to its slow decline
   We are entwined-let death come slow or fast,
The tie which bound the first endures the last!
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