To Eliza

George Gordon Lord Byron 1788 (London) – 1824 (Missolonghi, Aetolia)



Eliza, what fools are the Mussulman sect,
  Who to woman deny the soul's future existence!
Could they see thee, Eliza, they'd own their defect,
  And this doctrine would meet with a general resistance.

Had their prophet possess'd half an atom of sense,
  He ne'er would have woman from paradise driven;
Instead of his houris, a flimsy pretence,
  With woman alone he had peopled his heaven.

Yet still, to increase your calamities more,
  Not Content with depriving your bodies of spirit,
He allots one poor husband to share amongst four!-
  With souls you'd dispense; but this last, who could bear it?

His religion to please neither party is made;
  On husbands 'tis hard, to the wives most uncivil;
Still I Can't contradict, what so oft has been said,
 'Though women are angels, yet wedlock's the devil.'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

43 sec read
132

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB XCBC DXDX XEXE
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 802
Words 139
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

George Gordon Lord Byron

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet, peer and politician who became a revolutionary in the Greek War of Independence, and is considered one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement. He is regarded as one of the greatest English poets and remains widely read and influential. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; many of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular. He travelled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years in the cities of Venice, Ravenna, and Pisa. During his stay in Italy he frequently visited his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in life Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire and died of disease leading a campaign during that war, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died in 1824 at the age of 36 from a fever contracted after the First and Second Siege of Missolonghi. His only legitimate child, Ada Lovelace, is regarded as a foundational figure in the field of computer programming based on her notes for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. Byron's illegitimate children include Allegra Byron, who died in childhood, and possibly Elizabeth Medora Leigh.  more…

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