Lord Byron read by Classic Poetry Aloud:

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Giving voice to the poetry of the past.

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Stanzas to Augusta

by Lord Byron (1788 – 1824)

When all around grew drear and dark,

And reason half withheld her ray—

And hope but shed a dying spark

Which more misled my lonely way;

In that deep midnight of the mind,

And that internal strife of heart,

When dreading to be deemed too kind,

The weak despair—the cold depart;

When fortune changed—and love fled far,

And hatred's shafts flew thick and fast,

Thou wert the solitary star

Which rose, and set not to the last.

Oh, blest be thine unbroken light!

That watched me as a seraph's eye,

And stood between me and the night,

For ever shining sweetly nigh.

And when the cloud upon us came,

Which strove to blacken o'er thy ray—

Then purer spread its gentle flame,

And dashed the darkness all away.

Still may thy spirit dwell on mine,

And teach it what to brave or brook—

There's more in one soft word of thine

Than in the world's defied rebuke.

Thou stood'st as stands a lovely tree

That, still unbroke though gently bent,

Still waves with fond fidelity

Its boughs above a monument.

The winds might rend, the skies might pour,

But there thou wert—and still wouldst be

Devoted in the stormiest hour

To shed thy weeping leaves o'er me.

But thou and thine shall know no blight,

Whatever fate on me may fall;

For heaven in sunshine will requite

The kind—and thee the most of all.

Then let the ties of baffled love

Be broken—thine will never break;

Thy heart can feel—but will not move;

Thy soul, though soft, will never shake.

And these, when all was lost beside,

Were found, and still are fixed in thee;—

And bearing still a breast so tried,

Earth is no desert—e'en to me.

First aired: 20 November 2009

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