Explore "Epitaph on a Beloved Friend" by Lord Byron on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Oh, Friend! for ever loved, for ever dear! / What fruitless tears have bathed thy honour'd bier! / What sighs re'echo'd to thy parting breath, / Whilst thou wast struggling in the pangs of death! / Could tears retard the tyrant in his course; / Could sighs avert his dart's relentless force; / Could youth and virtue claim a short delay, / Or beauty charm the spectre from his prey; / Thou still hadst lived to bless my aching sight, / Thy comrade's honour and thy friend's delight.
If yet thy gentle spirit hover nigh / The spot where now thy mouldering ashes lie, / Here wilt thou read, recorded on my heart, / A grief too deep to trust the sculptor's art.