On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year

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Title:     On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year
Author: Lord Byron [More Titles by Byron]

On This Day I Complete My Thirty-sixth Year.[1]

1.

'T IS time this heart should be unmoved,
Since others it hath ceased to move:
Yet, though I cannot be beloved,
Still let me love!

2.

My days are in the yellow leaf;
The flowers and fruits of Love are gone;
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone!

3.

The fire that on my bosom preys
Is lone[iii] as some Volcanic isle;
No torch is kindled at its blaze--
A funeral pile.

4.

The hope, the fear, the jealous care,
The exalted portion of the pain
And power of love, I cannot share,
But wear the chain.

5.

But 't is not _thus_--and 't is not _here_--[iv]
Such thoughts should shake my soul, nor now
Where Glory decks the hero's bier,[v]
Or binds his brow.

6.

The Sword, the Banner, and the Field,[vi]
Glory and Greece, around me see!
The Spartan, borne upon his shield,[134]
Was not more free.

7.

Awake! (not Greece--she _is_ awake!)
Awake, my spirit! Think through _whom_
Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake,[vii]
And then strike home!

8.

Tread those reviving passions down,[viii]
Unworthy manhood!--unto thee
Indifferent should the smile or frown
Of Beauty be.

9.

If thou regret'st thy youth, _why live_?
The land of honourable death
Is here:--up to the Field, and give
Away thy breath!

10.

Seek out--less often sought than found--
A soldier's grave, for thee the best;
Then look around, and choose thy ground,
And take thy Rest.

Missolonghi, _Jan_. 22, 1824.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] ["This morning Lord Byron came from his bedroom into the apartment where Colonel Stanhope and some friends were assembled, and said with a smile--'You were complaining, the other day, that I never write any poetry now:--this is my birthday, and I have just finished something, which, I think, is better than what I usually write.' He then produced these noble and affecting verses, which were afterwards found written in his journals, with only the following introduction: 'Jan. 22; on this day I complete my 36^th^ year.'"--_A Narrative of Lord Byron's Last Journey to Greece_, 1825, p. 125, by Count Gamba. In the _Morning Chronicle_, October 29, 1824, the lines are headed, "Lord Byron's Latest Verses," and are prefaced by the following note: "We have been indebted to a friend for the following immortal verses, the last he ever composed. Four of the lines have already appeared in an article in the _Westminster Review_" ("Lord Byron in Greece," July, 1824, vol. ii. p. 227).]

[iii] _Is like to_----.--[M.C.]

[iv] ---- _it is not here_.--[M.C.]

[v] ---- _seals the hero's bier_.--[M.C.]

[vi] _The steed--the Banner--and the Field.--_[MS. B.M.]

[134] I. [The slain were borne on their shields. Witness the Spartan mother's speech to her son, delivered with his buckler: "either _with_ this _or on_ this" (B.M. Addit. MS. 31,038).]

[vii] _My life-blood tastes_----.--[M.C.]

[viii] _I tread reviving_----.--[M.C.]

[The end]
Lord Byron's poem: On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year

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