| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | They Say That Hope Is Happiness | | By Lord Byron (1788–1824) |
| | | THEY say that Hope is happiness; | |
| But genuine Love must prize the past, | |
| And Memory wakes the thoughts that bless: | |
| They rose the first—they set the last; | |
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| And all that Memory loves the most | 5 |
| Was once our only Hope to be, | |
| And all that Hope adored and lost | |
| Hath melted into Memory. | |
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| Alas! it is delusion all; | |
| The future cheats us from afar, | 10 |
| Nor can we be what we recall, | |
| Nor dare we think on what we are. | | | | |
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