401-404, which are in Byron's handwriting, were added
to the Copy.]

[rd] {523} _His latest beads and sins are counted_.--[Copy.]

[428] {524} [For the use of "electric" as a metaphor, compare
Coleridge's _Songs of the Pixies_, v. lines 59, 60--

"The electric flash, that from the melting eye
Darts the fond question and the soft reply."]

[re] _But no more thrilling voice rose there_.--[Copy.]

[429] {526} [Here, again, Byron is _super grammaticam_. The comparison
is between Hugo and "goodly sons," not between Hugo and "bride" in the
preceding line.]

[430] [Lines 539-544 are not in the Copy, but were inserted in the
Revise.]

[431] {527} [Lines 551-556 are not in the Copy, but were inserted in the
Revise.]

[rf] _Ah, still unwelcomely was haunted_.--[Copy.]

[rg] _Had only sealed a just decree_.--[Copy.]

POEMS OF THE SEPARATION.

INTRODUCTION TO _POEMS OF THE SEPARATION._

The two poems, _Fare Thee Well_ (March 17) and _A Sketch_ (March 29,
1816), which have hitherto been entitled _Domestic Pieces_, or _Poems on
His Own Circumstances_, I have ventured to rename _Poems of the
Separation_. Of secondary importance as poems or works of art, they
stand out by themselves as marking and helping to make the critical
epoch in the life and reputation of the poet. It is to be observed that
there was an interval of twelve days between the date of _Fare Thee
Well_ and _A Sketch_; that the composition of the latter belongs to a
later episode in the separation drama; and that for some reasons
connected with the proceedings between the parties, a pathetic if not
uncritical resignation had given place to the extremity of
exasperation--to hatred and fury and revenge. It follows that either
poem, in respect of composition and of publication, must be judged on
its own merits. Contemporary critics, while they were all but unanimous
in holding up _A Sketch_ to unqualified reprobation, were divided with
regard to the good taste and good faith of _Fare Thee Well_. Moore
intimates that at first, and, indeed, for some years after the
separation, he was strongly inclined to condemn the _Fare Thee Well_ as
a histrionic performance--"a showy effusion of sentiment;" but that on
reading the account of all the circumstances in Byron's _Memoranda_, he
was impressed by the reality of the "swell of tender recollections,
under the influence of which, as he sat one night musing