ΤΟ

THE COUNTESS GUICCIOLI.

LADY! if for the cold and cloudy clime

Where I was born, but where I would not die,

Of the great Poet-Sire of Italy

I dare to build the imitative rhyme,

Harsh Runic copy of the South's sublime,
THOU art the cause; and howsoever I
Fall short of his immortal harmony,

Thy gentle heart will pardon me the crime.

Thou, in the pride of Beauty and of Youth,

Spakest; and for thee to speak and be obey'd

Are one; but only in the sunny South

Such sounds are utter'd, and such charms display'd,

So sweet a language from so fair a mouth

Ah! to what effort would it not persuade?

RAVENNA, JUNE 21, 1819.

BYRON.