"So We'll Go No More a Roving" by Lord Byron (George Gordon) - Analysis
This poem was written by Lord Byron (1788-1824), otherwise known as George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, George Gordon Noel, and other names. He was an English poet and an influential figure in the Romantic movement. His atypical lifestyle dominates over his written work. Byron travelled extensively, then was exiled from society for disgraceful love affairs, of which there were many. Despite this, his poetry was beautifully written, inspiring numerous people around the world. Byron’s work influenced French composer Hector Berlioz and Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, among others.
So We’ll Go No More a Roving was written in Venice in 1817. At this point in his life, Byron had been unfaithful to his wife, who left him, taking their young daughter with her. Byron then left England for Italy, and included this poem in a letter to Thomas Moore on February 28 of 1817. It was first published in 1830, by Moore, in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron. I found this poem from http://www.poetryoutloud.org, a reliable source that is unbiased and recently revised. I also visited the home page of this website to ensure it is reputable.
I picked this poem because the message is interesting - the weariness of aging that overpowers the restlessness of youth. It appealed to me because it is a short, simple poem that still has a very memorable theme. It fits with my anthology’s theme because it shows insight into how weariness can influence any action. To me, it seems slightly regretful, but accepting of the body’s limitations all the same.
So We’ll Go No More a Roving takes the poetic form of a ballad. It contains three quatrains, with a rhyming scheme of abab cdcd efef and so on. This is effective because the rhyme is consistent and regular. The theme of the poem is to stop wandering and instead to stay rooted in one spot, and this rhyme reflects this. The poetic form of a ballad shows the speaker’s love for roving, or wandering, but also their ultimate, bittersweet decision to stop.
Byron uses numerous rhetorical techniques in order to make this poem effective. First, a chiasmus is found with the words “love” and “rove.” A type of parallelism, these phrases are placed in the opposite order. “Roving” is in the first line, then “loving” is found in line three. As the poem continues, “loving” is stated again in line nine, and finally “roving” in line eleven.
Symbols are also used metaphorically in this poem to show exhaustion and getting worn out. In line five, Byron wrote, “For the sword outwears its sheath,” which can have two meanings. If the speaker is the sword, he has used everything roving has to offer him. If the speaker is being compared to the sheath, this means roving has injured him or made him unable in some way. However, this vagueness, in my opinion, reduces the effectiveness of the poem.
An anaphora is also present in So We’ll Go No More a Roving. This is the repetition of a similar structure to begin each line. This can be seen in the first two lines, “So, we'll go no more a roving / So late into the night,” as well as in the second stanza, when three of the four lines begin with “And.”
Lastly, this poem has allusions to a refrain in the Scottish song The Jolly Beggar, as well as the traditional sea shanty The Maid of Amsterdam.
So We’ll Go No More a Roving was written in Venice in 1817. At this point in his life, Byron had been unfaithful to his wife, who left him, taking their young daughter with her. Byron then left England for Italy, and included this poem in a letter to Thomas Moore on February 28 of 1817. It was first published in 1830, by Moore, in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron. I found this poem from http://www.poetryoutloud.org, a reliable source that is unbiased and recently revised. I also visited the home page of this website to ensure it is reputable.
I picked this poem because the message is interesting - the weariness of aging that overpowers the restlessness of youth. It appealed to me because it is a short, simple poem that still has a very memorable theme. It fits with my anthology’s theme because it shows insight into how weariness can influence any action. To me, it seems slightly regretful, but accepting of the body’s limitations all the same.
So We’ll Go No More a Roving takes the poetic form of a ballad. It contains three quatrains, with a rhyming scheme of abab cdcd efef and so on. This is effective because the rhyme is consistent and regular. The theme of the poem is to stop wandering and instead to stay rooted in one spot, and this rhyme reflects this. The poetic form of a ballad shows the speaker’s love for roving, or wandering, but also their ultimate, bittersweet decision to stop.
Byron uses numerous rhetorical techniques in order to make this poem effective. First, a chiasmus is found with the words “love” and “rove.” A type of parallelism, these phrases are placed in the opposite order. “Roving” is in the first line, then “loving” is found in line three. As the poem continues, “loving” is stated again in line nine, and finally “roving” in line eleven.
Symbols are also used metaphorically in this poem to show exhaustion and getting worn out. In line five, Byron wrote, “For the sword outwears its sheath,” which can have two meanings. If the speaker is the sword, he has used everything roving has to offer him. If the speaker is being compared to the sheath, this means roving has injured him or made him unable in some way. However, this vagueness, in my opinion, reduces the effectiveness of the poem.
An anaphora is also present in So We’ll Go No More a Roving. This is the repetition of a similar structure to begin each line. This can be seen in the first two lines, “So, we'll go no more a roving / So late into the night,” as well as in the second stanza, when three of the four lines begin with “And.”
Lastly, this poem has allusions to a refrain in the Scottish song The Jolly Beggar, as well as the traditional sea shanty The Maid of Amsterdam.