LINES INSCRIBED UPON A CUP FORMED FROM A SKULL (Lord Byron, 1788-1824)
SO WE’LL GO NO MORE A ROVING (Lord, Byron, 1788-1824)
Written by Lord Byron in early 1817, though it was not published until thirteen years later, it
was included in a letter to his close friend Thomas Moore. In the letter, Byron describes that
he is not feeling very well and describes nights of celebration; he writes about the carnival
season, and how he has stayed up the past several nights to enjoy himself and is now
feeling the ill effects of it.
● The subjective experience
1) Reflecting on the speaker’s transition from youth to maturity
- Byron emphasises the transition from youth to age through the symbolic depiction of
the moon. Going through phases and shifts the tides, is also a conventional symbol
of change. In Byron's poem, the moon is ‘still as bright’ as it was in the past, and the
heart is ‘still as loving’. This repetition of ‘be still as’ emphasises how the speaker’s
inner and outer world remain unchanged. However, because of the symbolism of the
moon, they work as a reminder that in comparison the speaker has changed.
CONTEXT: In a letter to his close friend, Thomas Moore, from Venice (February 28th 1817)
Byron expressed his concerns about his ageing state: ‘At present, I am on the invalid
regimen myself [...] I did not dissipate much on the whole, yet I feel the ‘sword wearing out
the scabbard’, though I have just turned the corner of twenty-nine [...]’
- During the second stanza, the speaker suggests the process of ageing through the
metaphor of ‘the sword outwears its sheath’. Just as how a sheath that is used too
often can become worn out, the human heart and soul too becomes tired.
Accordingly, the heart ‘must pause to breathe,/ And love itself have rest.’ Byron
emphasises the sense of tiring which arises out of ageing through the sibilance,
creating a hushed, worn out sound. Byron’s tone of regret is conveyed in the second
stanza by the auxiliary verb ‘must’, which suggests that the heart’s ‘pause to breathe’
is a necessity not a choice. Moreover, the words ‘sword’, ‘outwears’ and ‘sheath’ are
drawn from the semantic field of battle, suggesting that with age the speaker has lost
a sense of heroism and strength with age. However, the phrase is also polysemic- as
a ‘sheaf’ is a phallic symbol, and given Byron’s history of sexual promiscuity that
contributed to his own exile, perhaps Byron suggests that his days of overt sexuality
are over.
CONTEXT: Lady Caroline Lamb, one of Byron’s many lovers, assessed Byron as such:
‘Mad, bad and dangerous to know.’
2) Feelings of lost romance
- Byron emphasises the speaker’s feelings of lost romance through the polysemic,
symbolic depiction of the moon. One symbol of the moon is of love and romance,
, since lovers' meetings often take place at night. In Byron's poem, the moon is ‘still as
bright’ as it was in the past, and the heart is ‘still as loving’. This repetition of ‘be still
as’ emphasises how the speaker’s inner and outer world remain unchanged.
However, because of the symbolism of the moon, they work as a reminder that in
comparison the speaker has changed physically, meaning that the ‘heart must pause
to breathe,/ and love itself have rest.’ The semantic field of pausing- ‘pause’,
‘breathe’, ‘rest’- emphasise the speaker’s age, and in turn suggest that the speaker,
although he ‘still’ loves, is too old to do so. Therefore, even ‘though the night was
made for loving [...] we’ll go no more a roving’.
3) Nostalgia and Mourning
- In the opening line of the poem, Byron creates a tone of mourning and nostalgia from
the start, through the strong assonance on the long /o/ sound in ‘So, we'll go no more
a roving’. This is indicative of the speaker’s sense of sadness and adds a touch of
mournfulness, as if the speaker is sighing "Oh!"
CONTEXT: In a letter to his close friend, Thomas Moore, from Venice (February 28th 1817),
Byron expresses his mourning of the self: ‘At present, I am on the invalid regimen myself.’
- Byron emphasises the speaker’s nostalgia and sense of mourning for the past
through the symbolic depiction of the moon. Going through phases and shifts the
tides, is also a conventional symbol of change. In Byron's poem, the moon is ‘still as
bright’ as it was in the past, and the heart is ‘still as loving’. This repetition of ‘be still
as’ emphasises how the speaker’s inner and outer world remain unchanged.
However, because of the symbolism of the moon, they work as a reminder that in
comparison the speaker has changed.
- Byron creates a sense of regret in the speaker’s mourning, which is suggested
through the use of ballad refrain with variation, shifting from ‘so’ to ‘yet we’ll go no
more a roving’. This substitution of ‘yet’ for ‘so’ enhances the speaker’s mourning as
perhaps we can interpret it as suggesting the speaker loses their resolve slightly.
