Cornelian by lord byron
the poem:
No specious splendour of this stone,
Endears it to my memory ever;
With lustre only once it shone,
and blushes modest as the giver.
Some who can sneer of friendship's ties,
Have for my weakness oft reprov'd me,
Yet still the simple gift I prize,
For I am sure, the giver lov'd me.
He offer'd it with downcast look,
As fearful that I might refuse it,
I told him when the gift I took,
My only fear should be to lose it.
This pledge attentively I view'd,
And sparkling as I held it near,
Methought one drop the stone bedew'd,
And ever since I've lov'd a tear.
Still to adorn his humble youth,
Nor wealth nor birth their treasures yield,
But he who seeks the flowers of truth,
Must quit the garden for the field.
'Tis not the plant uprear'd in sloth,
Which beauty shews, and sheds perfume;
The flowers which yield the most of both
In nature's wild luxuriance bloom.
Had Fortune aided Nature's care,
For once forgetting to be blind,
His would have been an ample share,
If well proportioned to his mind.
But had the Goddess clearly seen,
His form had fixed her fickle breast,
Her countless hoards would his have been,
And none remain'd to give the rest.
Endears it to my memory ever;
With lustre only once it shone,
and blushes modest as the giver.
Some who can sneer of friendship's ties,
Have for my weakness oft reprov'd me,
Yet still the simple gift I prize,
For I am sure, the giver lov'd me.
He offer'd it with downcast look,
As fearful that I might refuse it,
I told him when the gift I took,
My only fear should be to lose it.
This pledge attentively I view'd,
And sparkling as I held it near,
Methought one drop the stone bedew'd,
And ever since I've lov'd a tear.
Still to adorn his humble youth,
Nor wealth nor birth their treasures yield,
But he who seeks the flowers of truth,
Must quit the garden for the field.
'Tis not the plant uprear'd in sloth,
Which beauty shews, and sheds perfume;
The flowers which yield the most of both
In nature's wild luxuriance bloom.
Had Fortune aided Nature's care,
For once forgetting to be blind,
His would have been an ample share,
If well proportioned to his mind.
But had the Goddess clearly seen,
His form had fixed her fickle breast,
Her countless hoards would his have been,
And none remain'd to give the rest.
About it:
George Gordon, Lord Byron lived in a residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1805. There he started an intimate friendship with John Edleston, a choirboy at Trinity Chapel, their intimate relationship lasted until Byron left Cambridge in June 1807.
As a pledge of their love, Edleston in 1806 gave Byron a cornelian brooch pin in the shape of a heart, to which Byron refers in this poem which talks about their parting. Lord Byron also wrote a series of poems in which Edleston is disguised under the feminine name "Thyrza". Several of those poems were suppressed after their initial publication.
Byron asked his other boy-friend Edward Noel Long: "pray, keep the subject of my 'Cornelian' a Secret." Thomas Moore, Byron's friend and first biographer, who allowed Byron's memoir to be destroyed and who burned the homosexual passages from the surviving journals and letters, called Edlestone Byron's "adopted brother". Lord Byron chose carefully his words to not give evidence that he was referring to a man’s love.
As a pledge of their love, Edleston in 1806 gave Byron a cornelian brooch pin in the shape of a heart, to which Byron refers in this poem which talks about their parting. Lord Byron also wrote a series of poems in which Edleston is disguised under the feminine name "Thyrza". Several of those poems were suppressed after their initial publication.
Byron asked his other boy-friend Edward Noel Long: "pray, keep the subject of my 'Cornelian' a Secret." Thomas Moore, Byron's friend and first biographer, who allowed Byron's memoir to be destroyed and who burned the homosexual passages from the surviving journals and letters, called Edlestone Byron's "adopted brother". Lord Byron chose carefully his words to not give evidence that he was referring to a man’s love.