To Thyrza

One struggle more, and I am free
  From pangs that rend [my]1 heart in twain;
One last long sigh to love and thee,
  Then back to busy life again.
It suits me well to mingle now
  With things that never pleas'd before:
Though ev'ry joy is fled below,
  What future grief can touch me more?

Then bring me wine, the banquet bring;
  Man was not form'd to live alone:
I'll be that light, unmeaning thing
  That smiles with all, and weeps with none.
It was not thus in days more dear,
  It never would have been, but thou
Hast fled, and left me lonely here;
  Thou'rt nothing --- all are nothing now.

In vain my lyre would lightly breathe!
  The smile that sorrow fain would wear
But mocks the woe that lurks beneath
  Like roses, roses o'er a sepulchre.
Though gay companions o'er the bowl
  Dispel awhile the sense of ill:
Though pleasure fires the madd'ning soul,
  The heart -- the heart is lonely still!

On many a lone and lovely night
  It sooth'd to gaze upon the sky;
For then I deem'd the heavenly light
  Shone sweetly on thy pensive eye:
And oft I thought at Cynthia's noon,
  When sailing o'er the Ægean wave,
"Now Thyrza gazes on that moon " ---
  Alas, it gleam'd upon her grave !
 
When stretch'd on fever's sleepless bed,
  And sickness shrunk my throbbing veins,
" 'T is comfort still,"   I faintly said,
  "That Thyrza cannot know my pains: "
Like freedom to the time-worn slave,
  A boon 'tis idle then to give,
Relenting Nature vainly gave
  My life, when Thyrza ceased to live !

My Thyrza's pledge in better days,
  When love and life alike were new!
How diff'rent now [thou meet'st]2 my gaze!
  How ting'd by time with sorrow's hue!
The heart that gave itself [with]3 thee
  Is silent - ah, were mine as still!
Though cold as e'en the dead can be,
  It feels, it sickens with the chill.

Thou bitter pledge! thou mournful token !
  Though painful,  welcome to my breast !
Still,  still preserve that love unbroken,
  Or break the heart to which thou'rt press'd.
Time tempers love, but not removes,
  More hallow'd when its hope is fled:
Oh !   what are thousand living loves
  To that which cannot quit the dead ?

by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) , "To Thyrza", from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, published 1812

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Mrs. Robert Arkwright (Frances Crauford, née Kemble?) (-1849) , "One struggle more", published 1825?8? [medium voice and piano], London : J. Power
by John Clarke-Whitfeld (1770-1836) , "One struggle more, and I am free", published 1816, stanzas 1,3,6 [voice and piano], under the name John Clarke
by John Lodge Ellerton (1801-1873) , "In vain my lyre would lightly breathe", 1822, published 1826, stanzas 3-4 [voice and piano], from Six Canzonets, no. ?
by William M. Herbert , "One struggle more", published 1861. [voice and piano]
by (Mr.) M. Stydolf , "To Thyrza", published 1886 [voice and piano], from Five Songs, from the Works of the English Poets, &c., no. ?

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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