which I once meant to fill up for him was, with some exceptions, the sketch of a modern Timon,* perhaps a poetical Zeluco.t • [In one of his early poems-" Childish Recollections"-Lord Byron compares himself to the Athenian misanthrope, many of whose bitter apophthegms are upon record, but who is best known to English readers through the Timon of Shakespeare.] [It was Dr. Moore's object, in this powerful romance (now unjustly neglected), to trace the effects of a mother's compliance with the humours of an only child. With high advantages of person, birth, fortune, and ability, Zeluco is miserable, in every scene of life, from the selfindulgence pampered in infancy.] LONDON, 1813. TO IANTHE.* Nor in those climes where I have late been straying, Though Beauty long hath there been matchless deem'd, Not in those visions to the heart displaying Forms which it sighs but to have only dream'd, Hath aught like thee in truth or fancy seem'd: Nor, having seen thee, shall I vainly seek To paint those charms which varied as they beam'd To such as see thee not my words were weak To those who gaze on thee what language could they speak? Ah! may'st thou ever be what now thou art, Before whose heavenly hues all sorrow disappears. • [Lady Charlotte Harley (afterwards Lady Charlotte Bacon), second daughter of the Earl of Oxford, had not completed her eleventh year when these lines were addressed to her, in the autumn of 1812. Her juvenile beauty has been preserved in a portrait which Mr. Westall painted at Lord Byron's request.] Young Peri* of the West !-'tis well for me Happier, that while all younger hearts shall bleed, To those whose admiration shall succeed, But mix'd with pangs to Love's even loveliest hours decreed. Oh let that eye, which, wild as the Gazelle's,+ Wins as it wanders, dazzles where it dwells, This much, dear maid, accord; nor question why Such is thy name with this my verse entwined; Of him who hail'd thee, loveliest as thou wast, Though more than Hope can claim, could Friendship less require? [Peri, the Persian term for a beautiful intermediate order of beings, is generally supposed to be another form of our own word Fairy.] +[A species of the antelope. "You have the eyes of a gazelle," is considered all over the East as the greatest compliment that can be paid to a woman.] |