Saturday 6 September 2014

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know.

                                   
                                                 

When did you last read Byron; or indeed, have you ever read any Byron?

He must be one of the most famous un-read poets of the past millennium; in fact I believe that, today, at both Oxford and Cambridge (Byron himself was at Trinity Cambridge) his works remain almost unstudied.

However, Byron's is a name that we all recognise, and probably treat with respect; even though he is mostly remembered for his 'club foot', his good looks, his bisexuality, his affair with a choirboy', his incestuous relationship with a half-sister, his love of exotic animals, and his early death aged 36.

The only thing that Byron is NOT remembered for, is his poetry.

Myself, I associate him with a quotation which is extremely pertinent today. 'A celebrity is one who is known to many persons, who he is glad he doesn't know'.

Were he alive today he might have written 'A celebrity is one who we're all glad we don't know'.

He used to sleep with his hair in paper curlers! Oh yes he did.


15 comments:

  1. I last read Byron in a college literature class in 1968. Amazing talent, but I preferred Shelley (both Shelleys), and Keats, who "stood in is shoes and wondered." But Byron was an abiding energy from which I sought out and translated Lermontov and other romantic poets who examined politics and changed forever the posture of the individual.

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  2. SHE walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

    Wonder if anyone knows he was called George.

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  3. We also read Byron at school but i can not remember the poems. I googled him so i could pretend i know more. but decided not:)

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    1. I must say, I don't remember a single line of Byron.

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  4. Not being the biggest poetry fan, Byron has never really featured heavily in my life apart from reading bits at school and, having taken tea at The Orchard at Granchester, Cambridge many times, which was frequented by the likes of Rupert Brooke and where there is Byron's Pool named after Byron, as he used to swim there all the time. That is the extent of my Byron knowledge !!! XXXX

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    1. I think that's considerably more than most people's knowledge.

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  5. He sounds like he was quite a character. I think I would have got along well with him.

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  6. Nothing wrong with caring how you look lol.

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  7. That's a prize-winning chin, as well.

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  8. My only memory of the man and his work is my English lit prof, informing us of a poem we were studying, "all the incest takes place off stage."

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  9. Your timing is perfecto Cro. In my poetry class my professor Brigit Kelly, a lovely Irish lass with as much gay hair as me own, suggested we look to Byron next week. So I will and soon I'll be educatified enough to make a real comment!

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  10. omebody occasionally reads Byron at our poetry group but I must say I find it pretty unmemorable. I always have thought he was a bit of a Prima Donna.

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  11. Leonard Cohen has put 'Go No More a Roving' to music. It's one of my favourite of his songs.

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