Fugitive Pieces

by Isaac Nathan, Caroline Lamb, Lord Byron

A reproduction from the first edition, with a bibliographical note by Marcel Kessel. This was Byron's first volume of verse written when he was seventeen years of age. THIS TITLE IS CITED AND RECOMMENDED Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature; Catalogue of the Lamont Library, Harvard College.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

66 pages, Library Binding

First published December 1, 1933

About the author

Isaac Nathan (1790, Canterbury, Kent, England - 15 Jan 1864, Sydney, Australia) was an Australian composer of Polish descent and English birth.

Reviews

[Julie]

?/10

The young Byron at his most-angst-ridden-best-worst.

Some are truly dreadful -- but who can fault the ramblings, musings, meanderings, and entanglements of a (often) lovesick teenage boy, (as these were all written before he was 18) who was instrumental in re-defining the course of English poetry?

Found this at gutenberg.org, for those who care to read it.

Many cringe-worthy moments, but to be fair, and turn the tables, I wouldn't want anyone stumbling over my own creative teenage-angst moments, and judge my present self from that.

10 stars for bravery.

[Courtney Doss · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will preface this review by saying that I am an absolute heathen with zero literary taste. I cannot at all comment on the merit of the poems from the perspective of legitimate critique because I am so incredibly out of touch with what poems are "good" that my ratings stem entirely from personal enjoyability. If I laugh at a baudy joke in a limerick, I'll rate it five-stars, so take that for what you will.

With that said, I though that Fugitive Pieces, the first published poetry collection by the infamous Lord Byron, was really good. His love poems were, as you might expect, pretty swoony. He had a way with words so that it makes sense he was a ladies man. However, my main enjoyment came from the pure comic relief that I found in the poems. Byron was actually a pretty funny dude, even unintentionally, and his unrefined debut shows it.

The most obvious joke in the whole piece is that he writes panty-dropping poetry to his lovers declaring himself constant in his love, and them the sum total of everything he could ever want in his life. And then the next page has a poem written with equal zeal but addressed to another lady. When you're flipping through this book from page to page, reading romantic lines addressed to Mary and then Caroline and then Julia and then Elizabeth, its really funny.

Then, there are the times when he is intentionally funny. There is a poem in this collection where he laments that his lover wants to meet him outside for a romantic interlude, bitching about how its cold outside and he wishes that literary canon up to that point had made the idea of the indoors more romantic instead of cold garden interludes. In another instance, he tells a friend in verse that if he wants his girlfriend to love him more he should ignore her. Yet in another poem he reflects that divorce must happen in Heaven or else there would be no peace. Clearly he intends this to be funny, but there is also the humor that comes from knowing these pieces of intelligence were coming from an eighteen year old boy whose misogyny and arrogance made him imagine, as it does most teenagers, that he was somehow smarter than everyone and so above it all.

In closing, I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes from this collection, sent to a friend of his (the same one he advised to ignore his girlfriend).

You say when I rove
I know nothing of love
Tis true I am given to range.
If I rightly remember,
I've kiss'd a good number
But there's pleasure at least in the change

[Scott Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early Lord Byron. I looked this book up since one of my students used it as a reference for his paper. Most of the poems in the book are autobiographical about the relationships he was having at the time. I find it is as full of teenage angst as some of my students will produce, but for me, there were some really high points. His first poem titled "To _____" really spoke to me, as well as "The Tear." I also liked the poem "To Mary" which was the poem which was criticized so much that he pulled the book out of publication.

[Hopkin Royse · Rating 2 out of 5]

maybe people would like him more if he didn't cry so much

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Byron's first book of poetry, even though it was recalled before being published and all but four copies destroyed. It's interesting (sad, funny, and hypocritical) that the edition I read was a photo facsimile of the Rev. Becher's copy of the book. He was the one who told Byron that several poems were too risqué. In response, Byron recalled the print run and destroyed it. But, the Rev. kept his copy to himself and it has survived.

It was fun to read these early poems, which focus mostly on young love, passion, death and how one will be remembered. Some of his poems reminded me of some lines I wrote during college, showing that some of what makes us human has continued to be passed down through the generations.

One poem that caused Rev. Becher distress was called "To Mary" (p 17-19). It was an exciting piece about a former lover, that dwelt on their passionate moments. Somewhat mild by today's standards in its choice of words, it remains thrilling and exciting. It shows an inkling of the passion, pacing and fire Byron will bring to his later works. It's always cool to see a writer progress. It think "The Tear" (p. 43-46) also shows hints of the future Byron, using a single tear to show true and sincere emotion and honor, moving beyond empty words or actions.

I really liked a little fragment (1803) he had about how he wanted to be remembered:

Oh! may my shade behold no sculptur'd urns,
To mark the spot, where earth to earth returns.
No lengthen'd scroll of virtue, and renown,
My epitath, shall be my name alone;
If that with honour fails to crown my clay,
Oh! may no other fame my deeds repay;
That, only that, shall single out the shot,
By that remember'd, or fore'er forgot.

[Mat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful mix of pieces from Byron I was entertained for the majority of the collection. I was most impressed by the depth and powerful writing of a young Byron.

[Othniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Playful and precocious - containing a few gems and some preening adolescent nonsense. But probably a tad better than most schoolboy poetry.