uncultivated spectators are profuse of their applause !-But now the dance is over : let us remain here tonight and feast and be cheerful, young men, begging for our wreaths of flowers, while they say in their flattery, 'See how charming these young girls look coming from Licoo !-how beautiful are their skins, diffusing around a fragrance like the flowery precipice of Mataloco' :-Let us also visit Licoo. We will depart to-morrow.” (Mariner's Account, etc., 1827 ed., I, 244.) In the same place is given a poetical version in eight-line stanzas (by “a literary friend ”). A more strictly literal prose Byron, however, seems to have used only the version quoted above. The author notes that "it is perhaps a curious circumstance that love and war seldom form the subjects of their poetical compositions, but mostly scenery and moral reflections.”— In what sense are Byron's verses original poetry? What is the most important element in poetic originality ? 301 : 10. tooa. “A superior sort of yam” (Mariner). 302 : 29. Mooa. “Place where the chiefs. etc., dwell” (Mariner). 302 : 30. “Mats" are a common article of clothing in the Tonga Islands, according to Mariner. 302 : 32. Marly, or Malái, “a piece of ground, generally be. fore a large house, or chief's grave, where public ceremonies are principally held” (Mariner). 302 : 45. Cava, the pepper-plant, from which an intoxicating drink is prepared. 302 : 49. Tappa. “A substance used for clothing, prepared from the bark of the Chinese paper mulberry tree" (Mariner). 302 : 50. Hooni. A kind of flower. 302 : 58. « Licoo is the name given to the back or unfrequented part of any island” (Mariner). 303. ON THIS DAY I COMPLETE MY THIRTY-SIXTH YEAR. Byron's last poem, written in Greece a few weeks before his death. 303 : 5. Cf. • Macbeth,' V, iii, 23 : “my way of life Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf.” The following passage is from an article on Byron in Blackwood's Magazine, 1825 : " The last poem he wrote was produced upon his birthday, not many weeks before he died. We consider it as one of the finest and most touching effusions of his noble genius. ... The deep and passionate struggles with the inferior elements of his nature (and ours) which it records—the lofty thirsting after purity-the heroic devotion of a soul half weary of life, because unable to believe in its own powers to live up to what it so intensely felt to be, and so reverentially honoured as, the right—the whole picture of this mighty spirit, often darkened, but never sunk, often erring, but never ceasing to see and to worship the beauty of virtue—the repentance of it, the anguish, the aspiration, almost stified in despair--the whole of this is such a whole that we are sure no man can read these solemn verses too often.” INDEX OF FIRST LINES .......................... 7 296 ............... PAGE 273 220 288 ................ 213 .... 296 ....... 294 170 ...................... ....... 170 155 ea................ 29 .......... 151 PAGE .............. ....................... greece................ So, we'll go no more a roving....... .......... |