The looping handwriting on the yellowing scrap of paper does not appear to be of any importance, at first glance. The eight-line work is littered with grammatical errors and the last line seems to have been rushed.

However, because the 67 words were written by the late George Harrison it means that, from today, the modest composition will be on permanent display at the British Library.

The unrecorded lyrics were written by Harrison as the Beatles were reaching the height of their creative output. The song, for which no music survives, has emerged after Hunter Davies, the band’s biographer, rediscovered it in his archive of Beatles material. He has lent it to the library indefinitely and told The Times that he intends to leave it to the nation in his will.

He said that he had forgotten that he had the piece of paper, because Beatles memorabilia had little value when he first acquired it. Some 30 years later the demand for such material has become frenzied: a set of handwritten lyrics to A Day in the Life by John Lennon and Paul McCartney sold for £1.3 million in 2006. The Harrison song is thought to be worth tens of thousands of pounds.

“I asked all of the Beatles for examples of their handwriting and George gave me this,” he said. “But a few months later he gave me the lyrics to Blue Jay Way so I forgot all about it.”

The lyrics, which have been authenticated by Harrison’s ex-wife, Pattie Boyd, and his widow, Olivia Harrison, may be a first or second draft of a song that he wrote while playing his guitar, Davies suggested. “We don’t know if he put it to music. John and Paul would start by writing words and then put them to music.”

Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001, appears to have written the verses on a whim. On the reverse of the paper there are detailed instructions on how to get to Warbleton, East Sussex, the country retreat of Brian Epstein, the band’s manager.

The lyrics are on public display for the first time, alongside eight other items lent to the library by Davies, in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery. Davies said that he picked up most of the other items, each now worth a small fortune, from the floor of Abbey Road Studios. “They would come to the studio in the evening with a written song and give it to John or Ringo. It was all left on the floor. I asked if I could take them. They said of course.”

Davies, who is publishing a 40th anniversary edition of his Beatles biography today, preserved the scraps in cheap clip frames and kept them on his wall until he realised their value. “In about 1981 Sotheby’s had their sale of Beatles memorabilia and I woke up to find that the stuff I had on my wall was worth more than the house.” He recalled that burglars had taken some signed Beatles records during a break-in in 1975, for which he claimed £3.50 each on his insurance. “I thought: this isn’t safe. So I rang up the British Museum.”

The British Library, which moved to new premises away from the British Museum in 1998, accepted Davies’s offer immediately.

“It is interesting to see George’s thought process,” Davies said. “We know that John and Paul were the great lyric writers, and that George tagged along. It was only later that he wrote things like Blue Jay Way, but privately he was writing his own poetry. He wrote it in 1966 or 1967. It might have been about a girlfriend before Pattie, or about Pattie herself.

“I asked Paul about it recently, and he said, ‘Yes, it is his handwriting’. But he didn’t know anything about it.”

Scrap of the past

Im happy to say that its only

a dream

when I come across people

like you,

its only a dream and you make

it obscene

with the things that you think

and you do.

your so unaware of the pain

that I bear

and jealous for what you

cant do.

There’s times when I feel that

you haven’t a hope

but I also know that isn’t true.

Spelling and grammatical errors are Harrison’s own

Explore Music

• CD Reviews

• Live Reviews

• Classical

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010