[Damian Balassone]

Following on from my thread about Short Poems (five lines or less) from a few months back, I've put together a list of my favourite Byron quotes for anyone interested.

In addition to Byron’s poetry, I have tried to include some of the prose from his entertaining letters. Also, I have tried to give priority to brevity; so long passages from letters and poems are excluded.

https://damianbalassone.wordpress.co...on-quotations/

[Jonathan James Henderson]

I went through the full seven volumes of Byron's complete poetry many years ago and was quite devastated when, by some accident, all of the highlights on my Kindle were deleted. Ever since then I have made it a point to keep my highlights backed up to cloud storage. I loved the time I spent with Byron, and can understand why he was revered the world over during his time. I often wonder at his fall from prominence since, though. My only thought is that it fell at the same time that narrative poetry (much less narrative poetry in meter and rhyme!) fell out of vogue. Still, I would argue Byron is the best narrative poet we had since Milton, maybe since Chaucer, and his tales still hold up remarkably well. I remember being quite captivated by Don Juan, Manfred, and Cain especially. Many of his others read more like typical adventure novels of the period, though all of them were still quite entertaining with more than their share of highlights.

[John Isbell]

It's telling I think that I discovered Byron through short lyrics like "So we'll go no more a-roving." Byron made his name in the long poem, he doesn't spend that much time chiseling, and since about I.A. Richards, we've been taught that what counts is what is chiseled. Short stuff, perfect for a short attention span.
The Big Six all wrote long works, which they found important, though we read a lot of their shorter stuff. Hemans, LEL, and Tighe also wrote long poems, as of course did Moore, Crabbe, Scott, Southey, and the rest. THis pattern holds good across Europe - Sweden, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Russia - and through to Argentina at least.
One day, perhaps we'll return to reading the Romantics for what they found important in their work as well as what we find important. As to fame, Byron's fame in his lifetime dwarfed the other five put together. It was pan-European.

Cheers,
John

[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

Nice, Damian!

I'm no Byron expert, but I am a proof-reading addict, so here you go:

Dissipation

Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns to soon, (too)
Yet we’ll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.

England

It seamed the mockery of hell to fold (seemed)
The rottenness of eighty years in gold.

English Press

And how Alfonso sued for a divorce,
Were in the English newspapers, of course.
(The plural subject should be indicated somehow.)

Greece

The isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece!
(Should be “The isles of Greece! The isles of Greece,”)

Love

Yet, though I cannot be beloved,
Still let me love!
(On This Day I Complete My Thirty–Sixth Year) (You have a dash instead of a hyphen.)

Marriage

I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all. (extra space initially)

My Princess of Parallelograms (extra space before the last word)

Nature

Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine,
And all, save the spirit of man, is divine?
(“Know ye the land…” precedes this and should be noted to explain the question mark.)

Pleasure

Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure (full stop missing)

Religion

Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe…
Is that portentous phrase, ‘I told you so’ (full stop missing)

Solitude

I am a citizen of the world––all countries are alike to me (punctuation at the end?)
(NB You use three different varieties of dash)

Success (not in bold, nor with a line space before or after it)

Truth

’Tis strange - but true; (Now four different varieties of dash, and this one is irregular.)

Wit

The Cardinal is at his wit's end - it is true that he had not far to go. (Ditto.)

Women

But- Oh! ye lords of ladies intellectual, (Ditto.)

Youth

What is the worst of woes that wait on age?
What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow?
To view each loved one blotted from life's page,
And be alone on earth, as I am now. (Childe Harold)
(You have this quote under “Solitude” as well.)

(On This Day I Complete My Thirty–Sixth Year) (As noted above.)

Duncan

[Jonathan James Henderson]

Originally Posted by John Isbell

It's telling I think that I discovered Byron through short lyrics like "So we'll go no more a-roving." Byron made his name in the long poem, he doesn't spend that much time chiseling, and since about I.A. Richards, we've been taught that what counts is what is chiseled. Short stuff, perfect for a short attention span.
The Big Six all wrote long works, which they found important, though we read a lot of their shorter stuff. Hemans, LEL, and Tighe also wrote long poems, as of course did Moore, Crabbe, Scott, Southey, and the rest. THis pattern holds good across Europe - Sweden, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Russia - and through to Argentina at least.
One day, perhaps we'll return to reading the Romantics for what they found important in their work as well as what we find important. As to fame, Byron's fame in his lifetime dwarfed the other five put together. It was pan-European.

Cheers,
John

The long poem has been remarkably devalued after the 20th century. Maybe it's a personality quirk of mine but I tend to get the most from such works. As I've recently mentioned, even reading Ashbery I'm most drawn to those book-ending long pieces: The Skaters, Fragment, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, etc. even going back, everyone loves Blake for the Songs of Innocence and Experience. Sure, they're lovely, but they pale in the divine light that is Jerusalem, Milton, and The Four Zoas. More recently, James Merrill could write wonderfully sculpted miniatures like Charles on Fire (https://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/au...sonfire.html); but even more memorable was my time spent immersed in The Changing Light at Sandover; and the same for Walcott's Omeros.

I certainly love (and value) "the well wrought urn," but there are some things that can only be accomplished with longer times and grander space, and in those cathedrals of words it's OK if the paint is chipping and the bricks are roughed up as we see more the overall design than the details. I've often wondered if this devaluing of such grand gestures went hand-in-hand with the decline, or at least skepticism, of organized religion, with us no longer having the gods (or believing in them strongly enough) to fill in such spaces, resigning ourselves to (at most) writing "notes towards a supreme fiction" as Stevens did. The fate of Byron's secular poetry tales seems more the result of the ascendancy of the novel though. People seemed to no longer see the point of poetry narratives when so much was being accomplished in prose, including many authors who many would've considered more "poetic" in many ways than Byron (I think of Joyce especially, but certainly others as well). I've often wondered if it was possible to tempt general readers back. Could it be done if poetry was paired with the pulp fictions of, say, a JK Rowling or Steven King?

[Susan McLean]

I suspect that Byron also suffers shunning for his histrionic, melodramatic tendencies in some of his verse. And his wit, which I love, is another thing that is not currently fashionable. All humor in poetry these days runs the risk of seeming trivial. But Byron has a hard-nosed cynicism that should appeal to many fans of contemporary verse, if it weren't for these other aspects working against him.

Susan

[Damian Balassone]

Thanks for all the feedback and big thanks for Duncan for picking up those typos and formatting issues. I will correct.

I agree Susan, some of the early stuff (e.g. Childe Harold) certainly has some melodramatic tendencies. He was young and believed the world was against him, probably not too dissimilar to many of our modern day rock stars. And perhaps Byron was the first rock star, 150 years before his time.

As my selection shows, he could definitely pen an entertaining letter with a witty phrase or two. As for his later poetry, I especially like how the concluding couplets to those ottava rima stanzas can equate to punchy stand-alone epigrams. I find Don Juan a source of great fun and joy. Though there are also some beautiful passages such as when Haidée discovers Don Juan washed up on the shore.

[Jonathan James Henderson]

Good points, Susan. Your post makes me lament by how much poetry has lost by the devaluing of wit and melodrama, so much of what makes poetry fun. I miss poetry with speakers that joke with the audience, that makes fun of things, including themselves and poetry in general. Byron was, if nothing else, immensely fun to read, in large part because he wasn't afraid to go for it. While some of his work is perhaps a bit too histrionic (I especially think of Childe Harold, which I personally don't care much for), I think when he channeled that energy into impersonal narratives/dramas (Manfred and Cain are two personal favorites) it served him tremendously well. Don Juan, of course, is mostly in the opposite of that melodramatic style as well, being more in the spirit of, say, Henry Fielding.