Byron's Poetical Works, Volume 1

1.

  Your pardon, my friend,
  If my rhymes did offend,
  Your pardon, a thousand times o’er;
  From friendship I strove,
  Your pangs to remove,
  But, I swear, I will do so no more.

2.

  Since your beautiful maid,
  Your flame has repaid,
  No more I your folly regret;
  She’s now most divine,
  And I bow at the shrine,
  Of this quickly reformèd coquette.

3.

  Yet still, I must own, [i]
  I should never have known,
  From your verses, what else she deserv’d;
  Your pain seem’d so great,
  I pitied your fate,
  As your fair was so dev’lish reserv’d.

4.

  Since the balm-breathing kiss [ii]
  Of this magical Miss,
  Can such wonderful transports produce;

  Since the “world you forget,
  When your lips once have met,”
  My counsel will get but abuse.

5.

You say, “When I rove,” “I know nothing of love;” Tis true, I am given to range; If I rightly remember, I’ve lov’d a good number; [iv] Yet there’s pleasure, at least, in a change.

6.

  I will not advance, [v]
  By the rules of romance,
  To humour a whimsical fair;
  Though a smile may delight,
  Yet a frown will affright,

  Or drive me to dreadful despair.

7.

  While my blood is thus warm,
  I ne’er shall reform,
  To mix in the Platonists’ school;
  Of this I am sure,
  Was my Passion so pure,
  Thy Mistress would think me a fool.

8 [viii]

  And if I should shun,
  Every woman for one,
  Whose image must fill my whole breast;
  Whom I must prefer,
  And sigh but for her,
  What an insult ’twould be to the rest!

9.

  Now Strephon, good-bye;
  I cannot deny,
  Your passion appears most absurd;
  Such love as you plead,
  Is pure love, indeed,
  For it only consists in the word.

[Footnote 1:  The letters “J.  M. B. P.” are added, in a lady’s hand, in the annotated copy of ‘P. on V. Occasions’, p. 17 (British Museum).]

[Footnote i:  ‘But still’.

[Footnote ii:  ‘But since the chaste kiss.’

[Footnote iii:  ‘Such wonderful.’

[Footnote iv: 

’I’ve kiss’d a good number. 
But-----’

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[Footnote v: 

  ‘I ne’er will advance.’

[4to]]

[Footnote vi: 

  ‘Yet a frown won’t affright.’

[4to.  ’P. on V. Occasions.’]]

[Footnote vii: 

  ‘My mistress must think me.’

[4to.  ’P. on V. Occasions.’]]

[Footnote viii: 

  ’Though the kisses are sweet,
  Which voluptuously meet,
  Of kissing I ne’er was so fond,
  As to make me forget,
  Though our lips oft have met,
  That still there was something beyond.’

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