"Since my young days of passion--joy, or pain-- / Perchance my heart and harp have lost a string-- / And both may jar."
— Byron, George Gordon Noel, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824)
Date
1816
Metaphor
"Since my young days of passion--joy, or pain-- / Perchance my heart and harp have lost a string-- / And both may jar."
Metaphor in Context
Since my young days of passion--joy, or pain--
Perchance my heart and harp have lost a string--
And both may jar: it may be, that in vain
I would essay as I have sung to sing:
Yet, though a dreary strain, to this I cling;
So that it wean me from the weary dream
Of selfish grief or gladness--so it fling
Forgetfulness around me--it shall seem
To me, though to none else, a not ungrateful theme.
(p. 864, ll. 28-36)
Perchance my heart and harp have lost a string--
And both may jar: it may be, that in vain
I would essay as I have sung to sing:
Yet, though a dreary strain, to this I cling;
So that it wean me from the weary dream
Of selfish grief or gladness--so it fling
Forgetfulness around me--it shall seem
To me, though to none else, a not ungrateful theme.
(p. 864, ll. 28-36)
Categories
Provenance
Reading in Perkins. Text taken from HDIS.
Citation
Perkins, David, ed. English Romantic Writers. 2nd ed. Harcourt Brace Publishers, 1995.
Date of Entry
05/27/2008
Date of Review
05/27/2008
