Review of the poem "Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos" by George Gordon, Lord Byron.

I would like to do a review of the poem entitled "Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos" by George Gordon, Lord Byron. The speaker who I would assume to be the author is apparently an English Lord. At the time of the writing of this poem, Lord Byron who was born in 1788 was 24 years old. He was also apparently a young man ( he died young at the age of 36), who seems to have enjoyed adventure as the poem revolves around an account of his effort to swim across the strait of Hellespont which was a feat that is also credited to a character in Greek mythology named Leander.
The speaker appers to be reliable. He seems to understand ancient Greek mythology in his account of the exploits of Leander who customarily crossed the Hellespont from Abydos in Greek to Sestos in Asia minor to visit his sweetheart Hero. The difference with the speaker is that the lead character in this poem is reported to have crossed from Sestos to Abydos for shear vanity. The two crossings are similar in location but different in motives and outcomes.
The audience that this poem is directed to is general. The account is a comparism and contrast between the endeavours of the mythological Leander and the speaker. Leander who swam accross the Hellespont in the wintery month of December to visit the fair Hero unfortunately drowned on one of his attempts. The Speaker who swam across the Hellespont in May was successful, but developed a fever with chills.
The diction used in the poem can be described as both casual and elevated with more of a scew towards elevated. I would call it a mix. An example of this can be seen in the following verses at the beginning of the poem:
If, in the month of dark December
Leander, who was nightly wont
(What maid will not the tale remember?)
To cross thy stream, broad Hellesoont!
The word choice used in the poem was reletively clear and good, meaning could be easily deciphered and there are no unecessary repetitions. The tone of the poem is slightly rhetorical slightly admonition. There is some emotional distance that can be seen from the following verses:
For me, degenerate modern wretch,
Though in the genial month of May,
My dripping limbs I finally stretch,
And think I've done a feat today.
The language is moderately intense and I found that I needed to do a second reading to get the full import of the poem.

Importance of nature to the romantic poets.

I believe that nature plays an important role in the poems written by Romantic poets such

as Willian Blake, Wiliam Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge. These poets used examples of

things occurring in nature to allude to laws of nature that could be related to the human

experience as concerns issues of cause and effect, innocence and maturity, as well as good and

evil and general comparisms.

William Blake used an allusion to nature and cause and effect in his poem entitled

"London" as well as "Holy Thursday (II)." William Wordsworth used different symbols from

nature to explain his thoughts in his essay entitled" London 1802." Samuel Coleridge also used

examples from the natural world to help the reader visualize and better understand his poem

entitled "Frost at Midnight."

In the William Blake poem "London," the poet described the bleak condition of the British

capital city, London, at the time of his writing. The city and the nation was experiencing the

after-effects of the industrial revolution at the time and society was changing from a mostly

rural agrarian existence to a more urbanized and industrial mode. In describing the breakdown

of social mores and the incidence of cause and effect, Blake uses nature and disease to explain

the cause and effect relationship of increased promiscuity and moral breakdown. He describes

how a man who sought the services of a prostitute contracted a venereal disease and passed it

on to his wife. Eventually his wife became pregnant and unfortunately passed this disease on to

her newborn child. Blake notes in the poem:

"But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage hearse."

In the poem by William Wordsworth entitled "London, 1802," he described England at the

time as having stagnated and in need of a charismatic leader that would bring it back to

greatness. In describing his proposed leader in the poem, called"Milton," he used natural

symbols to explain his characteristics:

"Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Samuel Coleridge used allusions to the natural world in his essay "Frost at Midnight." I

believe that he explained how he grew up a dreamer who was not very much exposed to nature

as he grew up in a big city. It was his dream that his child would grow up with the opportunity of

much greater exposure to nature. If he too was a dreamer he would have ample sources of

reference in nature and the instruction and guidance of the laws of nature to rely on.