Introduction to Domestic Pieces.

In the present edition we have followed the example of preceding ones in classing together the six poems which follow as "Domestic Pieces," although in almost every line that Byron wrote we can trace something of his own individuality and the surroundings of his life. When "Fare thee well" and "A Sketch" first appeared, they rather increased than otherwise the storm of obloquy which burst on Lord Byron in consequence of his wife leaving him. Even his friend Moore shared in the general opinion that a man who could thus put his feelings into verse could not have felt very deeply, although when evidence was found among Lord Byron s private notes that the words of his farewell were wrung from him in anguish of mind and heart, his biographer did him tardy justice. Very few persons, we should now imagine, care to go into the interminable disputes as to the causes which led to the separation. Since Moore wrote, the publication of Lady Byron's letters to Mr Hodgson show that, writing immediately after the separation, she attributed the mysterious "treatment" she received from Lord Byron (details of which could never be extracted from either the lady or her advisers) to his having married for the sake of revenge; that his acts were, if those of a sane person, so violent that it was impossible for any woman to live with him, and that she had failed to get him put under restraint as legally insane. However, Lady Byron and her advisers have passed away, and no more light is ever likely to be thrown on the unhappy subject which may now be laid finally to rest. From what we know of Lord Byron's character it is quite certain that the only suitable wife for him would have been a woman who, in admiration of his genius, would have subordinated every wish and thought of her own to her husband's happiness and fame. Such a woman Lady Byron certainly was not, and a separation between two persons so ill-matched was sooner or later inevitable.

DOMESTIC PIECES.

FARE THEE WELL.

"Alas! they had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth;
And constancy lives in realms above;
And life is thorny; and youth is vain:
And to be wroth with one we love,
Doth work like madness in the brain;

To free the hollow heat from paining-
They stood aloof, the scars remaining,
Like cliffs which had been rent asunder;
A dreary sea now flows between,

But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,
Shall wholly do away, I ween,

The marks of that which once hath been."
COLERIDGE'S Christabel.

FARE thee well! and if for ever,
Still for ever, fare thee well:
Even though unforgiving, never
'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.

Would that breast were bared before thee
Where thy head so oft hath lain,
While that placid sleep came o'er thee
Which thou ne'er canst know again :

Would that breast, by thee glanced over,
Every inmost thought could show !