Impromptu, in Reply to a Friend
Impromptu, in Reply to a Friend - meaning Summary
Sheltered Sorrow's Brief Intrusion
Byron portrays a sudden, visible grief that rises from the heart like a shadow over the face and eyes. He counsels against yielding to that temporary gloom, insisting it will soon subside as inward thoughts withdraw. The poem emphasizes containment: sorrow is known, confined, and ultimately re-entombed within the speaker’s inner "dungeon," suggesting resignation and self-control rather than public display or lasting despair.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen, from the heart where Sorrow sits, Her dusky shadow mounts too high, And o’er the changing aspect flits, And clouds the brow, or fills the eye; Heed not that gloom, which soon shall sink: My thoughts their dungeon know too well; Back to my breast the wanderers shrink, And droop within their silent cell.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.