To E
To E - fact Summary
Addressed to Lady E. Ponsonby
This short dedicatory lyric is addressed to Lady Elizabeth Ponsonby and asserts moral equality between friends of different social rank. Byron contrasts “gaudy” title with modest worth, arguing that congenial souls and virtuous affection matter more than aristocratic rank. The poem defends a friendship that transcends social hierarchy and elevates personal worth and mutual sympathy above external titles.
Read Complete AnalysesLet Folly smile, to view the names Of thee and me in friendship twined; Yet Virtue will have greater claims To love, than rank with vice combined. And though unequal is thy fate, Since title deck’d my higher claims Yet envy not this gaudy state; Thine is the pride of modest worth. Our souls at least congenial meet, Nor can thy lot my rank disgrace; Our intercourse is not less sweet, Since worth of rank supplies the place.
November 1802
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