Explore "The Chain I Gave: from the Turkish" by Lord Byron on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The chain I gave was fair to view, / The lute I added sweet in sound; / The heart that offer'd both was true, / And ill deserved the fate it found.
These gifts were charm'd by secret spell, / Thy truth in absence to divine; / And they have done their duty well, / Alas! they could not teach the thine.
That chain was firm in every link, / But not to bear a stranger's touch; / That lute was sweet, till thou could'st think / In other hands its notes were such.
Let him who from thy neck unbound / The chain which shiver'd in his grasp, / Who saw that lute refuse to sound, / Restring the chords, renew the clasp.
When thou wert changed, they alter'd too; / The chain is broke, the music mute.‘ / Tis past, to them and thee adieu / False heart, frail chain, and silent lute.