19 quotes
Hope withering fled, and Mercy sighed farewell!
The Corsair (1814)
The best of prophets of the future is the past.
Farewell!
For in that word, that fatal word,—howe'er
We promise, hope, believe,—there breathes despair.
The Corsair (1814)
The "good old times" — all times when old are good —
Are gone.
The Age of Bronze (1823)
A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.
The Dream (1816)
Shrine of the mighty! can it be
That this is all remains of thee?
The Giaour (1813)
Full from the fount of Joy's delicious springs
Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings.
And one by one in turn, some grand mistake
Casts off its bright skin yearly like the snake.
Gone—glimmering through the dream of things that were.
But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence. The least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of.
Spared and blessed by Time,
Looking tranquility.
Eternity forbids thee to forget.
When Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet.
Think'st thou existence doth depend on time?
It doth; but actions are our epochs: mine
Have made my days and nights imperishable
Endless, and all alike, as sands on the shore
Innumerable atoms; and one desert
Barren and cold, on which the wild waves break,
But nothing rests, save carcases and wrecks,
Rocks, and the salt-surf weeds of bitterness.
Manfred (1817)
Yet Time, who changes all, had altered him
In soul and aspect as in age; years steal
Fire from the mind as vigour from the limb;
And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.
How chang'd since last her speaking eye
Glanc'd gladness round the glitt'ring room,
Where high-born men were proud to wait—
Where Beauty watched to imitate.
I am not now
That which I have been.
As soon
Seek roses in December, ice in June;
Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff;
Believe a woman or an epitaph,
Or any other thing that's false, before
You trust in critics, who themselves are sore.
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809)
Out upon Time! it will leave no more
Of the things to come than the things before!
Out upon Time! who forever will leave
But enough of the past for the future to grieve.