The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero)/Poetry/Volume 7/To Dives. A Fragment

by George Gordon Byron

[TO DIVES.^[1] A FRAGMENT.]

Unhappy Dives! in an evil hour
'Gainst Nature's voice seduced to deeds accurst!
Once Fortune's minion now thou feel'st her power;
Wrath's vial on thy lofty head hath burst.
In Wit, in Genius, as in Wealth the first,
How wondrous bright thy blooming morn arose!
But thou wert smitten with th' unhallowed thirst
Of Crime unnamed, and thy sad noon must close
In scorn and solitude unsought the worst of woes.

1809.
[First published, Lord Byron's Works, 1833, xvii. 241.]

1. [Dives was William Beckford. See Childe Harold, Canto I. stanza xxii. line 6, Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 37, note 1.]