Explore "Herod's Lament for Mariamne" by Lord Byron on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I / Oh, Mariamne! now for thee / The heart for which thou bled'st is bleeding; / Revenge is lost in Agony / And wild Remorse to rage succeeding.
Oh, Mariamne! where art thou? / Thou canst not hear my bitter pleading: / Ah! could'st thou-thou would'st pardon now, / Though Heaven were to my prayer unheeding.
II / And is she dead? -and did they dare / Obey my Frenzy's jealous raving? / My Wrath but doomed my own despair: / The sword that smote her's o'er me waving. - / But thou art cold, my murdered Love! / And this dark heart is vainly craving / For he who soars alone above, / And leaves my soul unworthy saving.
III / She's gone, who shared my diadem; / She sunk, with her my joys entombing; / I swept that flower from Judah's stem, / Whose leaves for me alone were blooming; / And mine's the guilt, and mine the hell, / This bosom's desolation dooming; / And I have earned those tortures well, / Which unconsumed are still consuming!
Jan. 15, 1815.