Sonnet to Lake Leman
Sonnet to Lake Leman - context Summary
European Travel Reflection
Written as a sonnet during Byron’s European travels, the poem links Lake Leman’s landscape to the intellectual legacy of Rousseau, Voltaire, Gibbon and De Sta’l. Byron suggests their association makes the shore lovelier and imbues the place with a hallowed, inspirational air. The poem celebrates how minds of genius confer a sense of immortal glory on a site, and how visiting that shore awakens a proud, almost religious admiration for their achievements.
Read Complete AnalysesRousseau Voltaire our Gibbon De Staël Leman! these names are worthy of thy shore, Thy shore of names like these! wert thou no more, Their memory thy remembrance would recall: To them thy banks were lovely as to all, But they have made them lovelier, for the lore Of mighty minds doth hallow in the core Of human hearts the ruin of a wall Where dwelt the wise and wondrous; but by thee How much more, Lake of Beauty! do we feel, In sweetly gliding o’er thy crystal sea, The wild glow of that not ungentle zeal, Which of the heirs of immortality Is proud, and makes the breath of glory real!
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