Status Updates From The Complete Works Of Lord ...

The Island, Canto 4: if you ever read The Island, be sure to read the Appendix. It will help you understand what the poem is about. Byron leans on so much history in his dramatic writings.

The Island, Canto 3:
“She was a warrior’s daughter, and could bear
Such sights, and feel, and mourn, but not despair.
Her lover lived,—nor foes nor fears could blight
That full-blown moment in its all delight:”
(Taken from the end of Stanza VIII)

The Island, Canto 2 (end): if you read it, look for the sexual innuendo all through the lines. Byron loved to indulge in the embarrassment of his readers.

The Island, Canto I.X:
“The breeze springs up; the lately flapping sail
Extends its arch before the growing gale;
In swifter ripples stream aside the seas,
Which her bold bow flings off with dashing ease.”

Paints the picture to perfection, doesn’t it.

Mazeppa (end):
Such a brutal tale told by Mazeppa to King Charles of Sweden.
Saved by the Cossacks’ daughter.
After being tied to a coarser spurred into the wilderness.
Man and beast as one.

Mazeppa, Stanza XVI: (Mazeppa was bound and strapped to the back of a wild courser)
“Onward we went—but slack and slow;
His savage force at length o’erspent,
The drooping courser, faint and low,
All feebly foaming went.
A sickly infant had had power
To guide him forward in that hour;
But useless all to me.”

Mazeppa, Stanza X (halfway):
“They play’d me then a bitter prank,
When they bound me to his foaming flank.
At length I play’d them one as frank—
For time at least sets all things even—
And if we do not watch the hour,
There never yet was human power
Which could evade, if unforgiving,
The patient search and vigil long
Of him who treasures up a wrong.”

The Prisoner of Chillon, XII:
“I made a footing in the wall,
It was not therefrom to escape,
For I had buried one and all,
Had loved me in a human shape;
And the whole earth would henceforth be
A wider prison unto me”

The Siege of Corinth, XXXIII (end):
“So near they came, the nearest stretch’d
To grasp the spoil he almost reach’d
When old Minotti’s hand
Touch’d with the torch the train—
T’is fired!”

These are just the 1st lines of Stanza XXXIII, which concludes the poem. It is beautifully detailed to its end as the church is consumed in flame! Byron had a thing about flames.

The Siege of Corinth, XXVII:
“The sharp shot dash’d Alp to the ground;
Ere an eye could view the wound
That crash’d through the brain of the infidel,
Round he spun,and down he fell;
A flash like fire within his eyes,
Blazed, as he bent no more to rise”

The Siege of Corinth, XVIII:
“What we have seen, our sons shall see;
Remnants of things that have pass’d away,
Fragments of stone, rear’d by creatures of clay!”

Lara, Canto II.XXV (end):
“Her eye shot forth with all living fire
That haunts the tigress in her helpless ire;
But left to waste her weary moments there
Such as the busy brain of sorrow paints
And woos to listen to her fond complaints”

Kaled was Lara’s page. Hiding her femininity beneath a turban, following the man she loved into battle, remaining by his side even to her own death. He never knew.

Lara, Canto I.XIII:
“One hope survives, the frontier is not far,
And thence they may escape from native war;
And bear within them to the neighboring state
An exile’s sorrows, or an outlaw’s hate:
Hard is the task their father-land to quit,
But harder still to perish or submit.”

Yes, Count Lara has gone to war against Otho, over a misconception, a mere confusion, an error in judgement.

“Glad for a while to heave unconscious breath,
Yet wake to wrestle with the dread of death “
— Lara, Canto I.XXIX

Count Lara faces a difficult rest only to face Ezzelin’s insults and accusations in the morning.

Lara, Canto I.XVIII:
“His madness was not of the head, but heart”

The Corsair, Canto III.XXIV (end):
“He left a Corsair’s name to other times,
Link’d with one virtue, and a thousand crimes.’

Poignantly simple poetry. That is Byron’s gift.

The Corsair, Canto III.XI:
“Her hurrying hand had left—‘t was but a spot—
It’s hue was all he saw, and scarce withstood—
Oh! slight but certain pledge of crime—‘t is blood!”

Gulnare has done the deed as promised. How will Conrad respond?

“She press’d his fetter’d fingers to her heart,
And bow’d her head, and turn’d to depart.
And noiseless as a lovely dream is gone.
And was she here? and is he now alone?”

The Corsair, Canto II.XV
Conrad wonders if the visit and promise made by Gulnare was all part of a raving dream.

The Corsair, Canto II.VI:
“Till the blade glimmers in the grasp of death,”

The trick to infiltrate Seyd’s palace worked and now Conrad seeks vengeance on Seyd, but first what to do with the lovely Gulnare.

The Corsair, Canto I.XVII (end):
“Ah! Never loved he half as much as now!”

“If there be love in mortals — this was love!”
— The Corsair, Canto I.XII
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

The Bride of Abydos, Cantro II (end):
Only in Byron’s work will you find will you find a man’s place of death referred to as “the Pirate-phantom’s pillow”. Poor Selim!

The Bride of Abydos, Canto II:
“Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!”
— taken from Stanza XX
He begs Zuleika to be the one true love of his tortured life and understand what terrible choices he had to make

The Bride of Abydos, Canto II, XV:
“Why me the stern usurper spared,
Why thus with me his palace shared,
I know not.”
— our hero’s words to his beloved, Zuleika

“My tale, my purpose, and my fear;
I am not, love! what I appear.”
— closing lines from The Bride of Abydos, Canto I

So very clever what hides within Byron’s lines.
On to Canto II.

The Bride of Abydos, Canto I, VI:
“Affection chain’d her to that heart;
Ambition tore the links apart.”

The Deformed Transformed (cont):
“The devil speaks truth much oftener than he’s deem’d:
He hath an ignorant audience.”
— Ceasar, part 2 scene 3

The Deformed Transformed (cont):
“This is the consequence of giving matter
The power of thought.”
— Caesar’s soliloquy (end of part1, scene 2)

The Deformed Transformed: and now to Rome 😏
“Hunger is a sharp artillery.” — Philibert