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Thread: Why no complete works of Byron on site?

  1. #1
    Byron Groupie
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    Why no complete works of Byron on site?

    I came to this site looking for Lord Byron's complete works, and I was pleased with the aesthetics of the webpage layout.

    I was very dismayed, however, to see Lord Byron's complete works were not online.

    Where is "Dark Lochnagar"? (I think I'm spelling that right.) I did a search on a few key words, including "Albion's," a word in the body of the poem.

    This amazing poem, for any lover of 'brave Caledonia' (Scotland,) was put to music by at least one group, the Corries (Roy Williamson and Ronnie Brown.) It's my favorite song on their "Compact Collection."

    It was very serendipitous one day when I randomly opened my book of Byron's complete works, and what do I find, but the poem this song came from!

    I guess I'll just keep looking.

    Also, why has nobody else posted to this Byron forum? He is, IMO, one of the greatest poets of all time!

  2. #2
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    Hello, sg1niner, welcome to the forum.
    I agree in saying that Lord Byron proves as one of the most amazing Romantic poets who has ever lived. Owning a large book of his poetry on my bookshelf, I did some research online, and noticed, finding you correct, how difficult it seems to find Byron's poetry. One website I love for much poetry that features some of his work:
    http://jollyroger.com/classicalpoetry/
    Good luck!

  3. #3
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    The Poetical Works of Lord Byron

    I just came across a copy of "The Poetical Works of Lord Byron", I believe published prior to 1891. There is no edition number, but it was published in Philadelphia by Porter & Coates at 822 Chestnut St., the firm moved to 900 Chestnut St. after 1891.
    It also says "Illustrated with Elegant Steel Engravings" each covered with transparent paper of sorts.
    Now, the kicker (for me anyway), I believe it is a signed copy by Lord Byron with a 3 word message to My Dear Murray. It is signed "Byron", but also "Biron".
    Is this book of interest to you or anyone else?

  4. #4
    Blade Runner Beaumains's Avatar
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    I've been looking for his complete works for quite some time, but this is the best that I could find for sale via the Internet: The Major Works
    Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever...

  5. #5
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    I think even finding Lord Byron's complete works on the bookshelf seems difficult, as he wrote so extensively; one could also say the same of other Romantics, like John Keats, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Blake.
    Good luck, anyway.
    Beaumains' site:

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by sg1niner
    I came to this site looking for Lord Byron's complete works, and I was pleased with the aesthetics of the webpage layout.

    I was very dismayed, however, to see Lord Byron's complete works were not online.

    Where is "Dark Lochnagar"? (I think I'm spelling that right.) I did a search on a few key words, including "Albion's," a word in the body of the poem.

    This amazing poem, for any lover of 'brave Caledonia' (Scotland,) was put to music by at least one group, the Corries (Roy Williamson and Ronnie Brown.) It's my favorite song on their "Compact Collection."

    It was very serendipitous one day when I randomly opened my book of Byron's complete works, and what do I find, but the poem this song came from!

    I guess I'll just keep looking.

    Also, why has nobody else posted to this Byron forum? He is, IMO, one of the greatest poets of all time!
    PhotoAspect.Com has the most comprehensive collection of Byron's Poetry works, it is as close to complete works as any site can be, have a look at:

    I used "Google site search" to look for the term "Albion's" and found 7 results, again, using the keyword "Caledonian"

    Here are some of the excerpts I have managed to find:
    ------------------
    Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Canto the 3rd, Verse 1)

    Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child!
    ADA! sole daughter of my house and heart?
    When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smil'd,
    And then we parted — not as now we part,
    But with a hope. —
    Awaking with a start,
    The waters heave around me; and on high
    The winds lift up their voices: I depart,
    Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by,
    When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye.

    Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Canto the 1st, Verse 2)

    Whilome in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth,
    Who ne in virtue's ways did take delight;
    But spent his days in riot most uncouth,
    And vex'd with mirth the drowsy ear of Night.
    Ah me! in sooth he was a shameless wight,
    Sore given to revel and ungodly glee;
    Few earthly things found favour in his sight
    Save concubines and carnal companie,
    And flaunting wassailers of high and low degree.

    Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Canto the 2nd, Verse 11)

    But who of all the plunderers of yon fane
    On high, where Pallas linger'd loth to flee
    The latest relic of her ancient reign;
    The last, the worst, dull spoiler, who was he?
    Blush, Caledonia! such thy son could be!
    England! I joy no child he was of thine:
    Thy free-born men should spare what once was free;
    Yet they could violate each saddening shrine,
    And bear these altars o'er the long-reluctant brine.

    Regards

  7. #7
    Just a weirdo
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    gpapa- any takers on the book yet? - Not so much interested in the sig.
    the local library is seriously lacking in anything before 1960.

  8. #8
    In libris libertas Aurora Ariel's Avatar
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    I've noticed online that there seems to be more on Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats, and many sites feature less poetry from Byron.Though recently I've seen one or two complete volumes of Byron in various bookshops.Last year I actually borrowed and read this book I stumbled across in one of the local libraries.It's actually quite a recent edition and I think it was new to the library.I was looking around in the writer biography section and came across one on Romantic poet Byron called Byron:Life and Legend by Fiona MacCarthy.And then this year I found this book again, but, brand new in a bookshop, in the poetry section!In this same library I have yet to find a biography on Keats or Shelley, but usually find one or two collected editions of their works in different bookshops when I look.Has anyone else read this book?It actually featured quite alot about his friend and fellow Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and the most well known biography on him is the one by well known biographer Richard Holmes, who also did the biography for S.T Coleridge and has a new book coming out in November called Footsteps; about been a Romantic biographer and tracing these poets and becoming entwined with their lives.Has anyone else read Shelley:The Pursuit?or another biography of one of these poets?
    Last edited by Aurora Ariel; 09-28-2005 at 09:06 AM.
    My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery --always buzzing, humming, soaring, roaring, diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What's this passion for?
    -Virginia Woolf

    “I want to write a novel about Silence,” he said; “the things people don’t say. But the difficulty is immense.” He sighed. - Night and Day

  9. #9
    learning IrishCanadian's Avatar
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    Byron is one of my favorite poets. The only things I'v read of his were in anthologies that i already own though. Perhaps i should read more Shelley. This is what i love about this site: i look for a familiar poet and find out that i'v been neglecting another romantic. haha. Thanks for the links to him, but it still would be nice to have some byron on this site.

  10. #10
    Mr RonPrice Ron Price's Avatar
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    Thinking of The Life of Byron

    I called this poem "untreated" because Byron died at 36, the same age I was when treated for manic-depression. The following prose-poem arose out of this contemplation.
    ___________________

    UNTREATED

    My poetry is a blending of autobiographical elements, echoes of the literature of the social sciences and humanities and a steady stream of references to and influences from Baha’i writings, history and teachings. This evening I was reading about the English poet George Byron(1788-1824). I was particularly struck by the fact that all of Byron's poetry is a blending of autobiographical elements and echoes of the literature he had absorbed over the years. And so I felt a certain affinity to Byron for this reason.

    His poem Don Juan is considered the most autobiographical of Byron’s works. Almost all of Don Juan is real life either Byron’s or the lives of those whom he knew. Byron started writing Don Juan on July 3rd 1818, eight months after the birth of Baha’u’llah. He continued working on the poem in Italy and on his death in 1824 the poem remained unfinished. Don Juan was a, perhaps the, poem that the working class took to heart in the mid-19th century, so Friedrich Engles informed us in 1844. This poem reached the urban and rural poor and, for many, it was all they read besides the Bible. It is very likely that most of these readers did not read any of Byron's other works. As early as 1819 the work was regarded by the bourgeoisie as filthy and impious, although it was not fully published until 1901. He was regarded by Eliot as having contributed nothing and by Goethe as the greatest genius of his century. -Ron Price with thanks to Galit Avitan, “Publication Histories: Byron’s Don Juan,” Ashes, Sparks and Hypertext, 2000.

    I suppose it’s your manic-depression
    that first attracted me to your work..;
    so often with poetry it’s the man and
    not the work which brings one close.

    Also, your popularity at the time
    of the birth of the greatest soul
    to ever draw breath on this planet1
    and your autobiographical poetry….

    At 36 my malady was finally treated
    and yours untreated even as you drew
    your last breath in 1824 at Missolonghi.
    You made your work for everyone,
    although now only a coterie read you.

    I, too, try to make my work readable
    by everyone but it, too, is read by few.
    Perhaps I should call my work sketches,
    autobiographical work perfecting my prose.

    Your life overshadowed your poetry and
    my life is my poetry. Few profoundly feel
    your influence, your sincerity and strength
    and fewer feel mine whatever I possess.

    Your battles in life exaggerated weakness;
    your strength was wasted in friction and
    you knew your poetry and Keats’ was poor
    that neither of you really had the poetic gift.

    Emerson said you had a sense of the infinite;
    to Shaw you were an energetic genius with
    a resultant unscrupulous freedom of thought;
    to Eliot you added and discovered nothing---
    an assessment made at the start teaching Plan2
    and an assessment prophetic in its way for most.

    1 Baha’u’llah 1817.
    2 1937 in “Contemporary and Critical Opinion,” Byron: Internet Site, 2004.

    Ron Price
    April 12th 2006
    Ron Price is a Canadian who has been living in Australia for 42 years(in 2013). He is married to a Tasmanian and has been for 37 years after 8 years in a first marriage. At the age of 69 he now spends most of his time as an author and writer, poet and publisher. editor and researcher, online blogger, essayist, journalist and engaging in independent scholarship. He has been associated with the Baha'i Faith for 60 years and a member for 53 years.cool:

  11. #11
    Mr RonPrice Ron Price's Avatar
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    After four months I post the following snippet on Byron:

    The poet Byron expressed the view that his writing derived from a painful intensification of self and the desire for relief from it. To withdraw himself from himself, to be releaved from what he saw as his "cursed selfishness," this was his sole, his entire, his "sincere motive in scribbling at all." While I find there is some truth in this explanation for the origins of my writing, there is so much more to it; indeed, the raison d'etre for my own writing is quite complex. It is a subject I have gone into from time to time throughout this memoir and I feel the need to expatiate on it to touch the motivational matrix, the explanatory framework, for why and what I am doing. Writing as I do here may be an escape from self, but it is also a royal road to selfhood. This work also negotiates the relationship between self and community in both the Bahá’í Faith and the nations I have lived in, Australia and Canada. This exercise in negotiation is also a source of the complexity...but I leave this topic here for fear of prolixity. Internet posts and sites seem to prefer small boxes and small posts--over and out!-ron
    Ron Price is a Canadian who has been living in Australia for 42 years(in 2013). He is married to a Tasmanian and has been for 37 years after 8 years in a first marriage. At the age of 69 he now spends most of his time as an author and writer, poet and publisher. editor and researcher, online blogger, essayist, journalist and engaging in independent scholarship. He has been associated with the Baha'i Faith for 60 years and a member for 53 years.cool:

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