Notes
1] Included in a letter written from Venice to Thomas Moore on February 28, 1817, and first published by Moore in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron (1830). In the letter, the poem is preceded by an account of its Lenten occasion. "At present, I am on the invalid regimen myself. The Carnival--that is, the latter part of it, and sitting up late o' nights--had knocked me up a little. But it is over--and it is now Lent, with all its abstinence and sacred music.... Though I did not dissipate much upon the whole, yet I find "the sword wearing out the scabbard," though I have but just turned the corner of twenty nine." The poem seems to have been suggested in part by the refrain of a Scottish song known as The Jolly Beggar.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: George Gordon, lord Byron, Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, ed. Thomas Moore (London: J. Murray, 1830). E-10 2736 Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto). Byron, Works. 17 vols. London: John Murray, 1832-33. PR 4351 M6 1832 ROBA
First publication date:
1830
RPO poem editor: M. T. Wilson
RP edition: 3RP 2.516.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/21
Composition date:
28
February
1817
Rhyme: abab