Has Byron's Life Eclipsed His Poetry?

It is of no doubt that Lord Byron was a very intriguing character, not only to the people of his time, but at this present day. He had a life that fascinated the world around, one with action, adventure, and most importantly of all, scandal. To think that a “Lord” could be the center of such a scandal, that a “Lord” could be essentially exiled from his home country, that he could defy all traditional customs and beliefs…This life was bound to attract attention to him. However, the apex of Byron’s tragedy is the fact that among all these things, he was a tremendous poet. This last aspect of Lord Byron's life is what, according to me, led him to become so famous. It is true that his life is quite unconventional, but I think that it's important to wonder if he'd be so well-known nowadays had he not been a poet. Would his life alone have sufficed to have us discuss him in school hundreds of years later? I think not, I believe that people recognized his poetry long before they did his life. We would talk about Byron now, even if he had had a very dull and plain life, void of scandal and promiscuity, simply because his poetry is like his life, and more. His poetry is intriguing, original, intelligent yet scandalous in parts, adventurous and ambitious. Accoridng to me, Byron, to his core, was more of a poet than anything else. Therefore I don't think that his life has eclipsed his poetry, his poetry is much more interesting simply because it contains much of what he is in his life, but with more and all the things I mentioned above.

The Red Sea

Oh, The red sky is falling low
Painting and tainting ground below
Only yearning and urging great flood,
That will wash away baleful black blood.
Cleanse this pain and all this shame,
Douse this flame that is to blame
For burning our homes and our land
Scorching our earth and our sand.


We contemplate the starless night
Heaven, it seems, far out of sight
Faceless, careless, we all want out
Stranded, branded, there is no route.
So alone we weap the arid smoke,
But this cloak that chokes will later soak,
With the wrath and greed of nations' heads
In the vast and violent sea of red.

Reaction to the novel Disgrace

"Yes, I'm giving it up." When I read those lines and realized that I had finished Disgrace, I was reluctant to put the book down. It felt as though I had unfinished buisiness with Mr. Lurie, like our relationship was cut off too quickly, too suddenly. I did enjoy reading this novel in spite of the fact that I didn't feel like I'd accomplished much in regards to enhancing my intellect or whatnot. It felt like I'd read any other ordinary novel...nothing particularily original or different, just a well written book. Unlike one hundred years of solitude that was abstract, implicit, and much harder to read and understand, I found. Disgrace is simply written and, it would seem, is straight forward and to the point. It is easy to finish this book and just by reading, to understand the story well, and it still makes sense. But then one must pause and think that this book won the Booker prize and has substantial recognition in the literature community. Therefore one must assume that there is much more to the novel than beats the eye, and when we start reading inbetween the lines, we discover a whole other aspect of the book. Allusions are omnipresent in the story, understandably so since David Lurie is a university professor, clearly an educated man, and the recurring use of latin quotes exemplfies this well.

What I thought was particularily noteworthy was that there is two well-defined settings, set of characters, and essentially stories in Disgrace. David Lurie, the main-character, is the only one to run through both of them. The first part of the story deals with David's way of life, affair with Melanie Isaacs, the trial, and consequently, his move to live with Lucy which brings us to the second part of the story. This second part revolves mostly around Lucy's rape, which is essentially the climax of the story. I actually didn't enjoy that much reading the climax, the part with the robbery etc., the novel up until then wasn't action driven at all, and I thought that this sudden burst of excitement kind of killed the nice laid back vibe. This was intended, but still I preferred the story before that point. Following the climax I thought it became kind of repetitive, with the dogs and Petrus, and when David goes back to once again discover that his apartment had been robbed...I liked the parallel that the author makes with Lucy and the dogs, which is strikingly evident at the end, stating that he is letting go the dog, like he is Lucy.

All in all, a good story, light and pleasent to read. Though a bit repetitive and perhaps too simple, its subtlety and implicitness makes it that much more interesting.

Is Shakespeare Overrated?

Personnally, I don't think that any of us are in a position to answer this question since we are still in the process of learning to appreciate good playwrighting and literature in general. We have many years ahead of us before being able to truly grasp the so-called genius of William Shakespeare. From what little I know and from the two plays and sonnets I've read and studied by William Shakespeare, I honestly fail to see what the big fuss is about. I do agree that he was a genius, a revolutionary; for had he not been, we most likely wouldn't be writing about him in a highschool in Lebanon thousands of miles away from where he dealt. He has received more praise than any other playwright, he is the most quoted, most infulential and most studied playwright in the world, in any language. I don't think that any artist could desrve such praise and credit. Shakespeare did not think himself as a God and his objective was not to be seen as one either. He was talented, and surely he sits beside Mozart, DaVinci, Picasso, Moliere, among the greatest artists who ever lived, according to popular culture. But I am too ignorant to validate such a position. I can't appreciate or understand his genius enough to judge whether or not he deserves this seat. Isolated from the oustide world and its opinions, would I think that Shakespeare is a demi-god in his field? Most likely not, because I know too little.

Lost in the Sand

Height of human arrogance absolute,
To defy the scyth is our goal in life.
Returning to God Eve's forbidden fruit,
Will seldom suffice to free us from strife.

We rush and run trying to beat the hand,
But it always finds way to beat us there.
This Time is lost in the hourglass sand,
It reigns supreme, taking without compare

Cease to desire what can't be obtained
Awake and admit, the clocks won't reverse
Cease wasting Time that cannot be regained
Accept that death is a gift not a curse

Refute the truth and forever regret
For Time stops not and in stone this is set

Sonnets

Three quatrains, a final couplet, written in iambic pentameter and a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g rhyme scheme, a shift of mood at the beginning of the third quatrain, and not to mention 14 lines long with the two last lines rhyming together. Such are the typical criteria of a sonnet. One might wonder how such exploits could be written considering the author is limited by this substantial number of rules that governs the composition of sonnets. However, I find that this is what makes sonnets so special. If one can truly appreciate the difficulty of writing such poetry, to wrap your mind around the skill it takes, the insightfulness and mastering of the english language an author must have, the writing of sonnets can be seen as nothing but remarkable. They are limiting in nature, but this forces the author to chose his words carefully and to improvise for the message he is trying to convey in the sonnet might not be as easy to convey as initially planned because words might have to be changed, stanzas shitfted around...in order for the sonnet to respect the rules mentioned. Since the rules make the theme, subject and intention of the sonnet more abstract, it leaves more space for the reader to analyse freely and make his own interpretation of the sonnet and in turn makes it much more interesting. Though there is nothing ground breaking about a sonnet's structure; its essentially just a poem with a specific structure that isn't particularly original, its convenient because it is long enough for the point to be communicated, yet short enough that it doesn't become tiresome or repetitive, and leaves enough to the imagination. Essay's, term papers and PHD Thesis's have been written on Shakespeare's Sonnet #18, and yet it consists of only 14 lines and doesn't seem to contain anything revolutionary, but something about it arises curiosity and a yearning to know more, which is why it is one of the most famous sonnets of all. Another example of Shakespeare's genius.

The problem the Author is refering to in this quote is the one that, to David Lurie atleast, sex has been complicated by the issues of love, the idea that one cannot have sex without being in love. However, David Lurie simply wants to satisfy his sexual urges/needs , he doesn't want a relationship and all the "complications" that come with it. By sleeping with a prostitute, he solves the issue for he doesn't need to love the prostitute, and neither does the prostitute love him. He wants affection during the act, clearly, but nothing more. He doesn't want a relationship, he doesn't want to see Soraya after or outside the room where they engage. Also, Lurie is rather old and men of his age tend to have a harder time with sexual relationships, older women tend to be less sexually active and to traditional standards, less attractive. With a prostitute, he may have sex with younger, more attractive women as he pleases. The third point is the chase. He doesn't want to pursue women in order to solely sleep with them. This is time-consuming, tiring, frustrating and essentially pointless when he can have a prostitute without all the fuss. To him this is ideal, and he has solved the problem. He hasn't, however, since he starts developing more of an affection for soraya, and she clearly doesn't feel the same way. He also pursues Melanie, sleeps with her, and complicates his life dramatically by doing so.

I was feeling patriotic okay.