To Dives. a Fragment
To Dives. a Fragment - meaning Summary
Fortune's Fall and Isolation
Byron addresses a wealthy man called Dives who has fallen from favor after yielding to unnatural, unnamed crimes. The poem charts a moral reversal: once prosperous and gifted in wit, genius, and wealth, Dives becomes subject to Fortune’s wrath. His former brightness gives way to scorn, enforced solitude, and ruin. The speaker frames the decline as deserved punishment for moral transgression and loss of natural order.
Read Complete AnalysesUnhappy Dives! in an evil hour ‘Gainst Nature’s voice seduced to deeds accurst! Once Fortune’s minion, now thou feel’st her power; Wrath’s vial on thy lofty head bath burst. In Wit, in Genius, as in Wealth the first, How wondrous bright thy blooming morn arose! But thou went smitten with th’ unhallow’d thirst Of crime un-named, and thy sad noon must close In scorn, and solitude unsought, the worst of woes.
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