1829.] The French Annuals. 143 
Lines ADDRESSED TO LApy Burssineron py Lorp Byron. 
You have asked for a verse—the request 
In a rhymer ’twere strange to deny ; 
But my Hippocrene was but my breast,' 
And my feelings (its fountain) are dry. 
Were I now asI was, I had sung? 
What Lawrence’ had pencilled* so well ; 
But the strain would expire on my tongue, 
And the theme is too soft for my shell. 
1 am ashes where once I was fire, 
And the bard in my bosom is dead ; 
What I loved I now’ merely admire, 
And my heart is as grey as my head. 
My life is not dated by years; 
There are moments which act® as a plough, 
And there is not a furrow appears 
But is deep in my soul as my brow. 
Let the young and the brilliant aspire » 
To sing while I gaze’ on in vain ; 
For sorrow has torn from my lyre 
The string which was worthy the strain. 
ANswER By LApy Burssineron. 
When I asked for a verse, pray believe, 
*T was’ not vanity urged the desire ; 
For no more can my mirror deceive,’ 
And no more can I poets inspire.'° 
Time" has touched with rude fingers my brow, 
And the roses have fled from my cheek ; 
Then it surely were folly, if now 
I the praise due to beauty should seek. 
But as pilgrims who visit the shrine 
Of some saint, bear a relic away, 
I sought a memorial of thine, 
As a treasure when distant I stray. 
Oh! say not that lyre is unstrung, 
Whose cords can such rapture bestow, 
Or that mute is that magical tongue 
From whence!” music and poetry flow. 
And though sorrow, ere!’ yet youth has fled, 
May have altered the" locks’ jetty hue, 
‘The bays that encircle the! head 
Hide’ the ravager’s marks from our view. 
These verses are communicated by a gentleman who shrouds himself 
under the initials of “« #. B. d’O.” : 
"In the Annales, heart.—? Mug, Ann.—' In the French version, Lawwence ; but 
they put a note to say that he is a “ célebre peintre Anglois.”’ It is only fair to add that 
the translation is, in general, elegant and faithful, though in prose.—* Paculed, Ann.— 
§ Non, Ann.—* Acta plough.—? Gap.—® I was.—? Deceie.—' On this, the French 
translator adds this gallant note: “ Lady Blessington est une des plus jeunes, et des plus 
jolies femmes de Y Angleterre.—"! Since, Ann.—!2 Essence, Ann.—'® Are, Ann.—'* So 
in the Annales ; but perhaps, legendum, thy.—!'® Stide, Ann. This is pretty printing 
