Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos
Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos - fact Summary
Byron's Hellespont Swim, 1810
Byron's short poem invokes the myth of Leander crossing the Hellespont to reach Hero and contrasts that legendary swim with the poet’s own feat. It playfully deflates heroic romance: Leander supposedly drowned for love while Byron, who in 1810 swam the Hellespont himself, returns with nothing grander than illness and a ruined joke. The tone is ironic, turning mythic glory into comic modern consequence.
Read Complete AnalysesIf, in the month of dark December, Leander, who was nightly wont (What maid will not the tale remember?) To cross thy stream, broad Hellespont! If, when the wintry tempest roar’d, He sped to Hero, nothing loth, And thus of old thy current pour’d, Fair Venus! how I pity both! For me, degenerate modern wretch, Though in the genial month of May, My dripping limbs I faintly stretch, And think I’ve done a feat today. But since he cross’d the rapid tide, According to the doubtful story, To woo, and Lord knows what beside, And swam for Love, as I for Glory; ‘Twere hard to say who fared the best: Sad mortals! thus the gods still plague you! He lost his labour, I my jest; For he was drown’d, and I’ve the ague.
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