Let Folly smile, to view the names
Of thee and me, in Friendship twin'd;
Yet Virtue will have greater claims
To love, than rank with vice combin'd.
And though unequal is 'thy' fate,
Since title deck'd my higher birth;
Yet envy not this gaudy state,
'Thine' is the pride of modest worth.
Our 'souls' at least congenial meet,
Nor can 'thy' lot 'my' rank disgrace;
Our intercourse is not less sweet,
Since worth of rank supplies the place.
November 1802.
Footnote 1: E--- was, according to Moore, a boy of Byron's own age, the son of one of the tenants at Newstead.
