Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos

Anthony Ryder
Introduction to Poetry

“Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos.” By Lord Byron.

Lord Byron, the author of this poetry lived from 1788 to 1824. He was reportedly born with a club foot. He grew up in a poor family in Aberdeen, UK. His first collection of poetry, “Hours of Idleness” was published in 1807. He was sexually hyperactive and contracted Sexually transmitted diseases. He was interested in the old Armenian culture and visited in 1816 St. Lazarus Island in Venice for that purpose. He published numerous works. His publications were reliable and they mostly reflect that he was a Romantic poet although at times, he wrote satiric papers. His masterpiece is believed to be “Don Juan” published in 1833. Several of his poems have made their way into musical inspirations for various symphonies. His audience was more general than specific because he was depicting his main character as an idealized and flawed main individual, which was talented, sexually virile and self destructive. He was inspired also by the Greek mythology and the Greek culture. For example he advocated for the return of the marbles of Parthenon to Greece. At the last stage of his life he suffered seizures that worsened until his death in 1824.

Poetic elements:

The diction is mixed casual and elevated. The emotional distance is captured intensely the following way in the last stanza:

He lost his labour, I my jest;
For he was drowned, and I’ve ague.

The use of resemblance in rhymes adds beauty to this poem and is compatible with the tone of this poem. The lines appear to be a combination of end-stopped and enjambed lines. They are broken into short statements for clarity. This poetry is written in closed form because several patterns could be detected in the poetry.