Audiobook

Lines, On Hearing That Lady Byron Was Ill

George Gordon, Lord Byron

Here is a bitterly sarcastic poem wherein a jilted Lord Byron spits out his distain for his estranged wife, Lady Byron, laying a curse upon her, accusing her of being a "moral Clytemnestra" (wife of Agamemnon, who conspired with her lover Aegisthus to murder her husband). The Byrons were only together 2 years before she fled to the safety of her parents' estate with their infant daughter and refused to see him henceforth, due to his debauchery, cruelty, and profligate spending of her money. Lord Byron was run out of Parlaiment and fled England for his scandalous behavior, and especially for having had an incestuous affair with his half-sister (with whom he had another daughter). But as he was a Lord, (and as he was a typical man of the period who considered himself his wife's Lord to do with as he pleased), he always blamed Lady Byron's high morals, unwillingness to speak up for him in public (he considered her silence treason), and what he perceived as her "unforgiveness" for his downfall. He often waged war with her in public through his poetry. Lord Byron left such a large body of letters, essays and "worlds' best" poetry, some don't realize he died at age 36. (Summary by Michele Fry)