A little bit of Paradis

Paradis | October 18, 2009

Think of me, sometimes, when the Alps and ocean divide us, – but they never will, unless you wish it.
~ Lord Byron

Category: Quotes to Know |
Tags: Byron

Paradis | October 12, 2009

Lord Byron was a romantic hero at odds with the world. He left England and wandered Europe. The correspondence and journals of Byron fill six volumes, and his letters have been described as wildly exclamatory. As both a poet and historical figure Byron is a fascinating figure.

Teresa, Countess Guiccioli, at sixteen had married an old and wealthy Italian nobleman. She was golden-haired, poised, well-read, and gentle. In 1819, when she was eighteen and he thirty-one, Byron met her and fell passionately in love. Here is one of his letters to her in 1819:

“…my destiny rests with you…”

My Dearest Theresa,
I have read this book in your garden: – my love, you were absent, or else I could not have read it. It is a favorite book of mine. You will not understand these English words, and others will not understand them, – which is the reason I have not scrawled them in Italian. But you will recognize the handwriting of him who passionately loved you, and you will divine that, over a book that was yours, he could only think of love.

In that word, beautiful in all languages, but most so in yours – Amor mio – is comprised my existence here and thereafter. I feel I exist here, and I feel that I shall exist hereafter, – to what purpose you will decide; my destiny rests with you, and you are a woman, eighteen years of age, and two out of a convent, I wish you had stayed there, with all my heart, – or at least, that I had never met you in your married state.

But all this is too late. I love you, and you love me, – at least, you say so, and act as if you did so, which last is a great consolation in all events. But I more than love you, and cannot cease to love you.

Think of me, sometimes, when the Alps and ocean divide us, – but they never will, unless you wish it.
Byron

Category: Famous Letters |
Tags: Byron, Famous Letters

Paradis | October 5, 2009

Words are things
And a small drop of ink
Falling like dew apon a thought
Produces that which makes thousands
Perhaps millions, think

Lord Byron

Category: Famous Poetry |
Tags: Byron