To Mr. Murray
To Mr. Murray - meaning Summary
Playful Counsel to a Publisher
Byron addresses his publisher John Murray in a playful, self-aware poem about the hazards of printing and public reception. He teases Murray for issuing works that may sell poorly and jokes about careless leaks to the press. The speaker frames publication as a comic adventure with exaggerated perils—naval sorties, combats and awkward reputations—turning real anxieties about reviews and readership into light-hearted satire aimed at both publisher and poet.
Read Complete AnalysesTo hook the reader, you, John Murray, Have publish’d ‘Anjou’s Margaret, Which won’t be sold off in a hurry (At least, it has not been as yet); And then, still further to bewilder em, Without remorse, you set up ‘Ilderim;’ So mind you don’t get into debt, Because as how, if you should fail, These books would he but baddish bail. And mind you do not let escape These rhymes to Morning Post or Parry, Which would be very treacherous–very, And get me into such a scrape! For, firstly, I should have to sally, All in my little boat, against a Galley; And, should I chance to slay the Assyrian wight, Have next to combat with the female knight.
March 25, 1817.
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