Lord Byron (1788–1824). Poetry of Byron. 1881.
I. Personal, Lyric, and ElegiacLast leaving England
I
A
When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled,
And then we parted,—not as now we part,
But with a hope.—
Awaking with a start,
The waters heave around me; and on high
The winds lift up their voices: I depart,
Whither I know not; but the hour’s gone by,
When Albion’s lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye.
And the waves bound beneath me as a steed That knows his rider. Welcome to the roar! Swift be their guidance, wheresoe’er it lead! Though the strain’d mast should quiver as a reed, And the rent canvass fluttering strew the gale, Still must I on; for I am as a weed, Flung from the rock, on Ocean’s foam, to sail Where’er the surge may sweep, the tempest’s breath prevail.