A WORD FOR BYRON.

Southland Times, Issue 1198, 21 January 1870, Page 3

A WORD FOR BYRON.

One word in charity: this hideous charge, Were the lie truth, should never have been uttered ; For Death had set Life's prisoners at larsre, And Time forgot what jealousy had muttered. And English hearts and hearths must not endure The poison-fumes of a sensation story ; Nor an unproven talo, confused, impure, Defraud us of our Byron's '•lassie glory. And fifty years had passed ; and all who knew — Sinners, and sinned against, long since departed; And nothing could be sure, as false or true, About the guilty and the broken-hearted. But, to traduce the dead who may not speak, Through wormod-out confidences of the dying, And, haply, on the innocent to wreak A wir c's revenge, through author-craft in lying.. Demurely, wantonly, to brand with crime One whose brief course, though not exempt from error, Has left a fame illustrious for all time, Aud whose bright pages were his soul's true mirror. To blacken his " sweet sister," long in blisß, By calumnies incredible and hateful — Oh treacherous " friend" of that false " wife" — is this A deed for which to thee the world is grateful. No! We denounce thee: by that widow's bed Thou satest meanly, pruriently prying ; Then —whispering low; now —feed to stab the dear!, And blab the slanderous secrets of the dying. Mabtin F. Tuppeb.