New Angles on Lord Byron; George Gordon, Lord Byron; Missolonghi; Albania; Delphi

Byron in Missolonghi


'Twas the bleeding doctors
Did him in,
Not the Bloody Revolution.


Enver Hoxha on Lord Byron, 1975


"I like Byron...
He sincerely loved my people,
Sang their praises
With pure feeling,
Sang of their manliness
And valour.
We love our friends
And welcome them,
For our enemies...
These bullets".


Byron in Delphi


Tony Harrison
Led us to the spot
At the Temple of Athena Pronaia.
It took a while to find it,
The fallen column
With the faint inscriptions:
BYR.., HOBHOUSE.
Perhaps we would be
The last to see them,
Where Philhellenes
Had carved their names
Near the navel of the world.
He poured on water
From the Castalian Spring,
Used a mirror
To make more distinct
Their Delphic markings.
Our secret mission, in search of scratches.
BYR...BY....B....a B, maybe?



Copyright JP.
From Corfu Blues, Ars Interpres Publications, 2006

In the same book, an essay (pages 153-162): "Lord Byron and Ambivalent Philhellenism: The Love/Hate Syndrome".





Tony Harrison at Delphi

Remains of the Stadium at Delphi, the village of Castri and the Castalian summits of the Parnassus
1813 - HOBHOUSE, John Cam, Lord Broughton. A Journey through Albania, and other provinces of Turkey in Europe and Asia, to Constantinople, during the years 1809 and 1810 … Second Edition, vols Ι-II, London, James Cawthorn, 1813.

Byron in Zitsa, Epirus:

1809 - 1810
Lord Byron: Letters on Albania, Robert Elsie

Portrait of Ali Pasha, 1820

From eng.travelogues.gr

HUGHES, Thomas Smart. Travels in Sicily Greece and Albania... Illustrated with engravings of maps scenery plans &c., vol. Ι, London, J. Mawman, 1820

Enver Hoxha (Wikipedia)

Byron in Athens

See also:

Lord Byron: Some Song Settings; Bluegrass Byron; Byron Lives!


Solomos, On the Death of Lord Byron


Michael Foot in Prague, 1988; A Vindication of Byron

Byron in Zitsa: Greek Translation of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1895)