Friends,
In the following days, I will be putting a verse by verse account of a poem I found deeply engrossing and inspiring. I am into history and historical plays, movies, books, poetry, and for now I am into Greece, Rome and Egypt in a very big way. I loved this poem because Lord Byron truly felt for the Greek people and it shows in his poetry. Also, he has managed to sum up a lot of Greek historical events and their Gods in 13 stanzas. Seeing as Greece has a very long history, doing this is no mean feat. In the event that I begin to bore you, feel free to leave, I just felt that I had to share this, so am doing so.
Apart from the usual history about Byron, the fact that he was promiscuous, fathered a few illegitimate brats here and there, was pretty darned rich and got himself a Cambridge education among a few others; after which he went got himself the title Lord and went into politics, then fell from power by sleeping with his half sister and since that, had to flee his home country, and blah, blah, blah; there is something I find very interesting in his actions. It seems to me that he was a disturbed person (well that one is obvious, but, wait there is more), because he was unable to understand what he was meant to do with his life. I think he found his true calling when he reached Greece, because maybe that's when he actually found a purpose to his life. He is considered a hero in Greece. Till his dying day, he actively supported Greece with money and would have even fought in active combat for her, had he not died of a fever first.
Or you could just say he was a lying, cheating, old fart and extremely dim-witted at that, to eventually land up in a war zone and get himself killed, and we could leave it at that.
But, wouldn't you agree that my way romanticizes the poet and makes his work more interesting? And I will believe that my version is true and will stand by it always, because it makes sense to me.
I will go with the first stanza of the poem after this.
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