Notes About The Poem

*(A sonnet composed as if George Gordon, Lord Byron had never known love's tumultuous peaks and valleys and instead had lived and died as a bachelor English aristocrat and poet.).

''George Gordon, Lord Byron's Improbable Lament,'' Rescripted


I longed for a love pure as driven snow
     and fresh as spring 'ere Youth's brief joys succumb;  
but a love never transpired; and, although  
     denied, I carried on to life's autumn.  
A maid, princess, or queen have I never  
     loved or with an ardent nymph passion-proved  
lust's all-consuming fire; deprived forever,  
     I disavowed former hopes for a beloved.     
So, thenceforth unblemished and innocent,
     without sin and virtuous from west to east,     
I surrendered my youth's prurient bent
     and forswore my lusts to dwell as a priest.
Now old and bootless, I ne'er knew desire;
or pierced the flower of a maid on fire.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2020

Poem

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