George Gordon Byron: Quotes about heart

George Gordon Byron was English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Explore interesting quotes on heart.

George Gordon Byron: 454 quotes9 likes

“The heart will break, but broken live on.”

George Gordon Byron

Variant: And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on.

“In secret we met
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.”

George Gordon Byron

When We Two Parted (1808), st. 4.
Context: In secret we met
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears.

“In secret we met
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears.”

George Gordon Byron

When We Two Parted (1808), st. 4.

“You gave me the key to your heart, my love, then why did you make me knock?”

George Gordon Byron

“The light of love, the purity of grace,
The mind, the music breathing from her face, 19
The heart whose softness harmonized the whole,—
And oh, that eye was in itself a soul!”

George Gordon Byron book The Bride of Abydos

Canto I, Stanza 6; this can be compared to: "The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love", Thomas Gray, The Progress of Poesy I. 3, line 16; also: "Oh, could you view the melody / Of every grace / And music of her face", Richard Lovelace, Orpheus to Beasts; "There is music in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument", Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Part ii, Section ix.
The Bride of Abydos (1813)

“There is no instinct like that of the heart.”

George Gordon Byron

“My heart in passion, and my head on rhymes.”

George Gordon Byron Don Juan

Source: Don Juan

“What deep wounds ever closed without a scar?
The hearts bleed longest, and heals but to wear
That which disfigures it.”

George Gordon Byron

“Oh who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried.”

George Gordon Byron

Canto I, stanza 1; this can be compared to: "To all nations their empire will be dreadful, because their ships will sail wherever billows roll or winds can waft them", Dalrymple, Memoirs, vol. iii, p. 152; "Wherever waves can roll, and winds can blow", Charles Churchill, The Farewell, Line 38.
The Corsair (1814)

“Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes,
Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.”

George Gordon Byron

Stanza 45.
Beppo (1818)

“The heart ran o'er
With silent worship of the great of old!
The dead but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule
Our spirits from their urns.”

George Gordon Byron book Manfred

Act III, scene iv.
Manfred (1817)

“My mother Earth!
And thou fresh breaking Day, and you, ye Mountains,
Why are ye beautiful? I cannot love ye.
And thou, the bright eye of the universe,
That openest over all, and unto all
Art a delight—thou shin'st not on my heart.”

George Gordon Byron book Manfred

Act I, scene ii.
Manfred (1817)

“Twas thine own genius gave the final blow,
And help'd to plant the wound that laid thee low:
So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
View'd his own feather on the fatal dart,
And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.”

George Gordon Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

Source: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), Line 826. A number of authors have addressed this common motif of an eagle shot with an eagle-feather arrow

“His heart was one of those which most enamour us,
Wax to receive, and marble to retain:
He was a lover of the good old school,
Who still become more constant as they cool.”

George Gordon Byron

Stanza 34; this can be compared to: "My heart is wax to be moulded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain", Miguel de Cervantes, The Little Gypsy.
Beppo (1818)

“Maid of Athens, ere we part,
Give, oh give me back my heart!”

George Gordon Byron

Maid of Athens http://readytogoebooks.com/MOA43.htm, st. 1 (1810).

“For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.”

George Gordon Byron

St. 2.
So, We'll Go No More A-Roving (1817)

“Though the day of my Destiny's over,
And the star of my Fate hath declined,
Thy soft heart refused to discover
The faults which so many could find.”

George Gordon Byron

Stanzas to Augusta http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-Augusta2.html, st. 1 (1816).

“Here's a sigh to those who love me,
And a smile to those who hate:
And, whatever sky's above me,
Here's a heart for every fate.”

George Gordon Byron

To Thomas Moore, st. 2.