Lucy And The Child

2017

January 17 1809 Byron wrote to Hanson that he has fathered a boy by Lucy one of the maids at Newstead and he must to provide for them a good annual income. His name was William. In Byron's poem to his son we learn that Lucy died.

And thou canst lisp a father's name -
Ah, William, were thine own the same, -
No self-reproach - but, let me cease - My care for thee shall purchase peace; Thy mother's
shade shall smile in joy, And pardon all the past, my Boy!
Her lowly grave the turf has prest,
And thou hast known a stranger's breast; Derision sneers upon thy birth,
And yields thee scarce a name on earth; Yet shall not these one hope destroy, -
A Father's heart is thine, my Boy!
Why, let the world unfeeling frown, Must I fond Nature's claims disown?
Ah, no - though moralists reprove,
I hail thee, dearest child of Love,
Fair cherub, pledge of youth and joy -
A Father guards thy birth, my Boy! Oh, 'twill be sweet in thee to trace,
Ere Age has wrinkled o'er my face,
Ere half my glass of life is run,
At once a brother and a son;
And all my wane of years employ
In justice done to thee, my Boy! Αlthough so young thy heedless sire, Youth will not damp parental fire;
And, wert thou still less dear to me, While Helen's form revives in thee,
The breast, which beat to former joy, Will ne'er desert its pledge, my Boy!