Lara: A Tale

By Lord Byron

Lord Byron was an English poet who became one of the leading figures in the Romantic Movement.  Byron is still considered to be one of the most influential poets in history.  This edition of Lara: A Tale includes a table of contents.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charles River Editors
• Release date: Mar 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781531279905

Lord Byron

Lord Byron was an English poet and the most infamous of the English Romantics, glorified for his immoderate ways in both love and money. Benefitting from a privileged upbringing, Byron published the first two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage upon his return from his Grand Tour in 1811, and the poem was received with such acclaim that he became the focus of a public mania. Following the dissolution of his short-lived marriage in 1816, Byron left England amid rumours of infidelity, sodomy, and incest. In self-imposed exile in Italy Byron completed Childe Harold and Don Juan. He also took a great interest in Armenian culture, writing of the oppression of the Armenian people under Ottoman rule; and in 1823, he aided Greece in its quest for independence from Turkey by fitting out the Greek navy at his own expense. Two centuries of references to, and depictions of Byron in literature, music, and film began even before his death in 1824.

Book preview

LARA: A TALE

..................

Lord Byron

KYPROS PRESS

Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this book, please leave a review or connect with the author.

All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

Copyright © 2016 by Lord Byron

Interior design by Pronoun

Distribution by Pronoun

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Lara: A Tale

Introduction to Lara

Canto the First.

Canto The Second.

LARA: A TALE

..................

INTRODUCTION TO LARA

The MS. of Lara is dated May 14, 1814. The opening lines, which were not prefixed to the published poem, and were first printed in Murray’s Magazine (January, 1887), are of the nature of a Dedication. They were probably written a few days after the well-known song, I speak not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name, which was enclosed to Moore in a letter dated May 4, 1814. There can be little doubt that both song and dedication were addressed to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster, and that Lara, like the Corsair and the Bride of Abydos, was written con amore, and because the poet was eating his heart away.

By the 14th of June Byron was able to announce to Moore that Lara was finished, and that he had begun copying. It was written, owing to the length of the London season, amidst balls and fooleries, and after coming home from masquerades and routs, in the summer of the sovereigns (Letter to Moore, June 8, 1822, Life, p. 561).

By way of keeping his engagement—already broken by the publication of the Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte—not to trespass on public patience, Byron began by protesting (June 14) that Lara was not to be published separately, but might be included in a third volume now collecting. A fortnight later (June 27) an interchange of unpublished poems between himself and Rogers, two cantos of darkness and dismay in return for a privately printed copy of Jacqueline, who is all grace and softness and poetry (Letter to Rogers, Letters, 1899, iii. 101), suggested another and happier solution of the difficulty, a coalescing with Rogers, and, if possible, Moore (Life, 1892, p. 257, note 2), into a joint invasion of the public (Letter to Moore, July 8, 1814, Letters, 1899, iii. 102). But Rogers hesitated, and Moore refused to embark on so doubtful a venture, with the result that, as late as the 3rd of August, Byron thought fit to remonstrate with Murray for advertising Lara and Jacqueline, and confessed to Moore that he was still demurring and delaying and in a fuss (Letters, 1899, iii. 115, 119). Murray knew his man, and, though he waited for Byron’s formal and ostensibly reluctant word of command, Out with Lara, since it must be (August 5, 1814, Letters, 1899, iii. 122), he admitted (August 6, Memoir of John Murray, 1891, i. 230) that he had anticipated his consent, and had done everything but actually deliver the copies of Lara. The moment, he adds, "I received your letter, for for it I waited, I cut the last