A Fragment: When, to Their Airy Hall
A Fragment: When, to Their Airy Hall - meaning Summary
Desire for Simple Remembrance
Byron's short fragment imagines his spirit called from life while his body returns to earth. He asks for no sculpted urns, long scrolls, or praise-encumbered stones; he wants only his name as epitaph and hopes honor will attach to it. If honor fails, he prefers no posthumous praise. The poem stresses modest remembrance and a refusal of grand memorials, echoing Byron's concerns about mortality and legacy.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen, to their airy hall, my father’s voice Shall call my spirit, joyful in their choice; When, poised upon the gale, my form shall ride, Or, dark in mist, descend the mountains side; Oh! may my shade behold no sculptured urns, To mark the spot where earth to earth returns! No lengthen’d scroll, no praise-encumber’d stone; My epitaph shall be my name alone: If that with honour fail to crown my clay, Oh! may no other fame my deeds repay! That, only that, shall single out the spot; By that remember’d, or with that forgot.
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