A POEM by Lord Byron has been discovered in a 19th-century book within the archives of University College London.

It is the only known manuscript of the untitled poem that appeared in print four years later, in 1816. It was assumed that the original had been lost, but a librarian stumbled across it during a routine cataloguing.

Dated April 19, 1812, the poet signed his name in Greek characters. The inscription is within an 1810 edition of The Pleasures of Memory by Samuel Rogers, a patron of the arts and a minor poet. It was a gesture of friendship from Byron, who later showed his disdain for the man.

The Pleasures was well received when it was published in 1792, and it went through 15 editions before 1806. In 1793 Rogers set up a literary salon in London, where he entertained writers, artists, actors and politicians. Rogers used to present copies of his work to his friends, and inscribed this one to “The Right Hon.ble The Lord Byron, from his obliged & faithful friend The Author”.

Byron wrote his own inscription: “Afterwards returned by Lord Byron to Mr Rogers with the lines written on the other side.” His 12-line poem begins “Absent or present still to thee”. It seems likely that Byron was directly inspired by his reading of The Pleasures of Memory.

Two acknowledged authorities on Byron have authenticated the poem. Peter Cochran, editor of The Newstead Byron Society Review, said it had been assumed that the manuscript was lost. Jerome McGann, John Stewart Bryan University Professor at the University of Virginia, said: “A discovery of this kind plunges us right into the centre of Byron’s life world and its network of personal relations.”

Although Byron praised the elegance of Rogers’s writing, and spent time with him and Shelley in Italy, he eventually turned against him. Dr Cochran described Byron as a volatile and emotional character who had turned against most of his friends at some time.

Byron’s inscription was made just after the publication of Childe Harold. He was insecure about his fame, and despised the public that had made him famous. “The intesting thing is that Rogers himself is a neglected poet these days who is only known really as a friend of Byron.”

The discovery comes after another in the same library — a previously unrecorded manuscript of the 1820 Ode to Naples, in the handwriting of Claire Clairmont, the stepsister of Shelley’s wife, Mary. Both are part of the collections at UCL, which is conducting a £25 million fundraising campaign to create a museum the Panopticon, in Bloomsbury.

Mislaid lines

Absent or present still to thee
My friend, what magic spells belong!
As all can tell, who share, like me,
In turn thy converse, and thy song.
But when the dreaded hour shall come
By Friendship ever deemed too nigh,
And “Memory” oer her Druid’s tomb
Shall weep that aught of thee can die,
How fondly will She then repay
Thy homage offered at her shrine
And blend, while Ages roll away
Her name immortally with thine

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