A Poem by Lord Byron. . . . .....

(III) and Augusta Leigh

(i) STANZAS TO AUGUSTA ("When all around") 1816.

When all around grew drear and dark,
And reason half withheld her ray,
And hope but shed a dying spark
Which more misled my lonely way -

In that deep midnight of the mind,
And that internal strife of heart,
When, dreading to be deemed too kind,
The weak despair - the cold depart!

When Fortune changed, and Love fled far,
And Hatred s shafts flew thick and fast,
Thou wert thy solitary star
Which rose and set not to the last.

Oh, blest be thine unbroken light!
That watched me as a seraph s eye,
And stood between me and the night,
Forever shining sweetly nigh.

And when the cloud upon us came,
Which strove to blacken o'er thy ray -
Then purer spread its gentle flame,
And dashed the darkness all away!

Still may thy spirit dwell on mine,
And teach it what to brave or brook:
There s more in one soft word of thine
Than in the world s defied rebuke.

Thou stoodst as stands a lovely tree,
That still unbroke, though gently bent,
Still waves with fond fidelity
Its boughs above a monument.

The winds might rend, the skies might pour,
But there thou wert - and still wouldst be
Devoted in the stormiest hour
To shed thy weeping leaves o'er me.

But thy and thine shall know no blight,
Whatever fate on me may fall;
For Heaven in sunshine will requite
The kind - and thee the most of all!

Then let the ties of baffled love
Be broken - thine will never break!
Thy heart can feel, but will not move;
Thy soul thou soft, will never shake.

And these, when all was lost beside,
Where found and still are fixed, in thee-
And bearing still a breast so tried,
Earth is no desert - e'en to me! .... . .. Poem dedicated to The Navigator of My Dark Night.

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