Don Juan: Canto the Twelfth

Don Juan: Canto the Twelfth

Original Text
Byron, Works, 17 vols. (London: John Murray, 1832-33). PR 4351 M6 1832 ROBA.
LIV
425But now I will begin my poem. 'Tis
426     Perhaps a little strange, if not quite new,
427That from the first of Cantos up to this
428     I've not begun what we have to go through.
429These first twelve books are merely flourishes,
430     Preludios, trying just a string or two
431Upon my lyre, or making the pegs sure;
432And when so, you shall have the overture.
LV
433My Muses do not care a pinch of rosin
434     About what's call'd success, or not succeeding:
435Such thoughts are quite below the strain they have chosen;
436     'Tis a "great moral lesson" they are reading.
437I thought, at setting off, about two dozen
438     Cantos would do; but at Apollo's pleading
439If that my Pegasus should not be founder'd,
440I think to canter gently through a hundred.
Publication Start Year
1823
RPO poem Editors
M. T. Wilson
RPO Edition
3RP 2.552.
Rhyme