Go no more a roving Flashcards
1
Q
4
‘So late into the night […] the moon be still as bright’
A
- Jaunty yet wistful tone - energic pattern of accentual trimeter - uses 3 stresses but switch up metrical feet - bouncy, playful, hushed, tongue in cheek nostalgia
- Spekaer wants to embarkon a new, more mature, slow pace pahse of life, but partly hesitant - they want to emphasise what HASN’T changed - desire for the love of the night
- Enthusiasim still here, synecdom for body as a whole, synmbol of romantic madness - ‘moonstruck’
- Allusion to Scottish ballad - story of sexual mischief - ‘and we’ll gang nae mair a roving’
1
Q
2
‘And the soul wears out the breast, and the heart must pause to breathe’
A
- Emotions are symbolically connetced to the heart, sometimes need a break from operating at full intensity
- Parallel phrasing - worn out - sexual innuendo
2
Q
3
‘The night was made for loving, and the day returns too soon’
A
- Still intoxicated by thrill of the night - can’t ‘rove’ as energetic as they were when they were young
- ‘ay’ sounds - assonance harmoniously weak lines together like lament - mixed feelings that come witht hat stage of life
- Not moonstruck by end of the poem, passing from one phase to another
3
Q
Byron context
A
Wild and dissolute youth, often wrote poems about being too old for love, even told Thomads Moore - ‘I feel the sword wearing out the scabbard’
4
Q
Christian culture
A
Christian idea that body leaves soul in death
5
Q
Language point
A
Slightly at odds with the poem’s opening and closing declarations, which seem to promise permanent change - in speaker’s behaviour. Possible to reconcile this apparent mismatch - internal conflict? - when speaker wants to resume punishment of love, might intend to be loswer, tamer
6
Q
Context
A
Written in 1817 and published posthumously in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron (1830), Lord Byron’s “So We’ll Go No More a Roving” has endured as one of his most popular short poems. A reworking of an old Scottish ballad, it’s a farewell to youthful wildness by a poet whose youth was scandalously wild. The “we” of the poem pledge to stop partying all night long, but the pledge sounds wistful—and maybe halfhearted.
7
Q
Youth v Maturity
A
- Composed when the poet was 29, Lord Byron’s “So We’ll Go No More a Roving” proclaims the end of a wild phase of youth. It announces that the speaker (a plural “we”) will stop “roving”—partying and pleasure-seeking—late into the night, because they feel worn out and in need of rest.
- As a kind of elegy for youthful wildness, however, the poem contains an undertone of regret. The speaker hints that their lust for life hasn’t gone away, leaving some ambiguity as to whether they’ll actually settle down for good. Thus, the poem highlights the conflict and poignancy of having to act like an adult when, inwardly, you still feel the excitement of youth.
- The speaker starts by declaring that they’ll stop their late-night partying, suggesting that settling down is a part of growing up. The opening word “So” stresses that the declaration comes as a consequence of something. It’s as if the speaker has been forced to a decision (because they’re getting older and getting tired). The word “roving,” meanwhile, suggests rowdy late-night activities: partying, seeking sex and romance (“loving”), etc.
- The speaker indicates that all this “roving” has tired out their body, psyche, and emotions. They haven’t lost all desire for late-night fun, but for now at least, they can’t pursue it at the same pace. “The sword wears out the sheath,” the speaker says, winkingly referring to sex (“sword” and “sheath” suggest the male anatomy and the partner’s body) and implying that they’re worn out from sexual adventure. The speaker’s reference to “the soul wear[ing] out the breast” evokes a kind of spiritual fatigue, too. It might even suggest the speaker’s awareness of their own mortality, since the soul, in some traditions, exits the dying body. Finally, the speaker signals their emotional fatigue by stating that “the heart” sometimes needs a chance to rest—that it “must pause to breathe.” The word “pause” raises the possibility that this rest may be temporary.
8
Q
So, we’ll go no more a roving
So late into the night
A
- “So We’ll Go No More a Roving” starts with a firm decision: not to go “roving / So late into the night” anymore. In the most basic sense, “roving” means wandering, but here it implies partying, pleasure-seeking, and carousing: all the fun of nightlife.
- The speaker, who speaks for a collective “we,” doesn’t yet explain why they’ve made this resolution. But perhaps readers can get some context from the poem’s allusion to an earlier Scottish ballad. In that ballad, the words “And we’ll gang nae mair a roving / Sae late into the night” (the Scots version of this poem’s first words) form a refrain between verses that tell a story of sexual mischief and good times. Maybe this speaker’s “roving” had a similar flavor.
- But Byron’s poem doesn’t explain any background: it just jumps right into the middle of things with the word “So.” This abrupt opening helps grab the reader’s attention and pique their interest about what could have prompted this sudden decision.
9
Q
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.
A
- After their initial pledge to stop “roving” so much, the speaker immediately introduces a qualification—a “Though.” Although the speaker intends to change their wild behavior (somewhat), they want to emphasize what hasn’t changed: their desire for love and the romantic fun of the nighttime.
- In this context, “loving” doesn’t suggest settled, long-term, domestic love. People who go out “roving” late at night aren’t looking for a fiancé, but for sex and romantic adventure. The speaker promises to cut back on their wild nights even though their “heart” remains just as invested in this kind of romance. The crisp /t/ consonance in these lines, which links the “heart” and the moon’s “bright[ness]” to the word “still,” subtly supports the idea that the speaker’s enthusiasm for “roving” is as lively as ever.
- In theory, how much “roving” the speaker does should have nothing to do with the brightness of the moon. (Moonless nights can be wild, too.) But the moon here is a symbol, not only of night itself, but of romance, change, and wild madness—especially romantic madness. (Think of expressions like “moonstruck” or “over the moon for someone.” Also, think of the kind of romance-seeker who changes partners as often as the moon changes phases.) For the speaker, the continuing brightness of the moon seems like an alluring beacon, reminding them of the night’s temptations even as they’re pledging to settle down a bit.
10
Q
For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
A
- They present the first two reasons —”the sword outwears its sheath” and “the soul wears out the breast”—in parallel phrasing that suggests a close connection between the two. It’s as if the speaker is saying that the soul can wear out the “breast” (or chest) in the same kind of way that a sword eventually wears through its scabbard after long use.
- “The sword outwears its sheath” can literally mean that swords will eventually wear out the cases that hold them. But here, the speaker is also metaphorically comparing themselves to a worn-out object, or to one object that has worn out another.
- There’s sexual innuendo here, too: the speaker is suggesting that the male anatomy, the “sword,” will eventually tire out and/or get tired of a partner’s body. In other words, the speaker is feeling tired out by sex. The military imagery also evokes the old-fashioned (arguably outworn!) idea of sex as a soldier-like pursuit—a form of conquest.
- In an explanatory note on the poem, Byron told his friend Thomas Moore that “I find ‘the sword wearing out the scabbard,’ though I have but just turned the corner of twenty-nine.” In other words, he was feeling tired even though he wasn’t that old. (Byron, who had a notably wild and dissolute youth, often wrote poems about feeling too old for love when he was still pretty young.)
11
Q
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.
A
- After explaining that bodies and souls get tired, the speaker adds that the emotions (the “heart”) can get tired as well. The speaker’s personification of the heart here suggests it might have a good deal in common with the rambunctious “we” who will no longer be doing quite so much “roving.” The speaker is making a broad statement here, but they’re also talking about themselves: their late-night romantic pursuits seem to have taken an emotional toll.
- “The heart must pause to breathe” is metaphorical in that hearts don’t really get winded (and in fact, if they pause long enough, the body dies). By comparing the heart to a body that needs a breather, Byron means that the emotions—which are often symbolically associated with the heart—sometimes need a break from operating at full intensity. Even love, which is sometimes imagined as constant and undying, needs a rest now and then.
- The words “pause” and “rest” suggest something temporary, not a complete stop. This language is slightly at odds with the poem’s opening and closing declarations, which seem to promise a permanent change in the speaker’s behavior. It’s possible to reconcile this apparent mismatch: when the speaker resumes their pursuit of love, they might intend to do so on a slower, tamer, and/or more mature basis. Still, the apparent mismatch further highlights their internal conflict. Are they really ready to slow down, or is their wildness just on pause?
12
Q
Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon
A
- The final stanza begins with another qualified word: “Though.” These lines reverse the structure of the first stanza, which makes a statement and then introduces a countering “Though.” Here, the qualification comes first. The speaker appears to be squeezing in one last expression of reluctance before repeating their pledge to end their late-night “roving.”
- Why are they reluctant? Because “the night was made for loving” and “the day returns too soon.” On some level, the speaker is still intoxicated by the thrill of the night. Even though they know they’re no longer young and energetic enough to “rove” at the same pace, they’ll miss their wild nights of staying out late and looking for love. Again, “loving” suggests romantic adventure, and the speaker believes “the night was made for” such adventure—as if anyone who isn’t staying out late is wasting the night’s potential. The day seems to return “too soon” because it’s dull and unromantic by comparison.
13
Q
Yet we’ll go no more a roving
By the light of the moon.
A
- At last, the poem comes full circle. The speaker repeats their pledge to “go no more a roving,” using the same exact words that they used at the beginning.
- This repetition might be read as the speaker still trying to convince themselves, or build up their resolve. While the words “we’ll go no more a roving” repeat exactly, here that reluctant pledge is introduced by “Yet,” which in context means something like “Even so.” Basically, this final stanza is saying: “Yes, the night is romantic and much more exciting than the daytime, but even so, we’re not going to stay out late at night anymore.” Again, the speaker is conveying an inner conflict even as they’re promising a change of behavior.
- That conflict might be reflected in the meter here. The last line is the only one in the poem that uses two stressed syllables instead of three: “By the light of the moon.” There’s something emphatic and firm about those two abrupt stresses—but also a feeling of incompletion. Perhaps there’s still a bit more “roving” to be done, after all.
14
Q
The Moon
A
- The moon traditionally symbolizes several things that relate directly to Byron’s poem: romance, change, and madness.
- The moon has long been a symbol of love and romance, since lovers’ meetings often take place at night. Here, it “still” holds the promise of romantic pleasure, shining as “bright” and tempting as ever. But the speaker is getting older and can’t take advantage of that promise as much as before.
- The moon, which goes through phases and shifts the tides, is also a conventional symbol of change. Sometimes it’s specifically associated with changes in romantic desire, as in Juliet’s speech to Romeo from the balcony (Romeo and Juliet, II.ii): th’ inconstant moon,
- Finally, the moon is traditionally linked with craziness and wild abandon. The word “lunatic” comes from luna, Latin for moon, and derives from the ancient belief that the moon caused madness. It can be specifically linked with the madness of love, as in the word “moonstruck.” All of this seems relevant to a poem about saying goodbye to your wild and crazy youth. (Byron himself was an eccentric and volatile personality; one of his lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb, famously called him “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”)
15
Q
The Sword and the sheath
A
- The “sword” and “sheath” here symbolize the human body—and more specifically, its sexual parts. In the poem, these two objects get old and worn out from repeated use, paralleling the way people, too, start to tire out as they age. More specifically, the image that the body can get tired of sex! In other words, the “sword” and “sheath” are probably a reference to the male anatomy and…any part of a partner’s anatomy it might enter during sex. (Byron was bisexual, so we won’t narrow our interpretation here.)
- In its coy way, this image links the concept of “roving” with the subject of sex—and, because weaponry is involved, the idea of sexual “conquest.” It also connects this kind of “roving” with young soldiers and aristocrats, who in Byron’s era might have carried literal swords with them while out on the town. (Byron himself was an aristocrat and, toward the end of his brief life, a soldier.) As an image of romantic pursuit, it could suggest violence, old-fashioned gallantry, or both. Regardless, it suggests that too much “roving” has left the speaker as worn out as weaponry—or soldiers themselves—after military service.
16
Q
Form
A
- The three stanzas organize the poem into a logical and symmetrical structure. Stanza 1 describes the speaker’s decision to roam no more (though they seem a little reluctant about it); stanza 2 presents the speaker’s reasons for their decision; and stanza 3 returns to the decision again—still wistful, but final.
- Unlike traditional ballads, including the earlier songs/ballads it derives from, Byron’s poem doesn’t tell a detailed story. Although it hints at an underlying story about a speaker who’s indulged in a lot of late-night fun, it focuses on a more general emotional experience: the feeling that youth is over. In that respect, Byron has adapted his source material into a different poetic mode, shifting from narrative to lyric. Lyric is more about the expression of personal emotions and thoughts than complex storytelling. It’s a mode closely associated with the Romantic movement of which Byron was a part (though Byron also wrote a lot of narrative poetry).
17
Q
2
Rhyme Scheme
A
- The rhymes in line two and four of each stanza are exact; the rhymes in lines one and three are nearly exact, slant rhymes rather than perfect ones. That is, “roving” rhymes almost perfectly with “loving” and “sheath” with “breathe”—but not quite perfectly, at least in standard British and American pronunciation.
- This tight, closed rhyme scheme emphasizes the closure the poem deals with: the end of youth. (The poem’s few imperfect rhymes might be read as an echo of the speaker’s resistance toward this closure.) It’s also a scheme adapted from the ballad tradition that gave rise to Byron’s poem. The short lines and regular rhymes make “So We’ll Go No More a Roving”—like all well-crafted ballads—memorable, musical, and easy to recite.
18
Q
Speaker
A
- The speaker of the poem is an unnamed “we,” a group of lively young-ish people who don’t feel so young anymore. This “we” is borrowed from the ballads, popular folk songs that served as the poem’s source material: most notably, “The Jolly Beggar,” whose refrain in a 1776 printing went like this:
- These older works include detailed tales of sexual misadventures. In adapting the refrain to his poem, Byron has made his “we” and their situation much more general—broad enough to encompass anyone worn out by the wildness and excitement of youth. At the same time, the poem reflects specific events in Byron’s own life. He originally enclosed it in a letter to a friend with an introductory note:
19
Q
Setting
A
- The poem is not set in a specific physical location. The “roving” it refers to presumably takes place in a setting of fun social activity—”out on the town,” so to speak.
- The poem is also set during the nighttime hours. It portrays “roving” as an activity of the night, illuminated by a big, bright, romantic moon. While the poem doesn’t specify a time of year, Byron originally enclosed it in a letter to a friend, prefaced by a note in which he explained that “sitting up late o’ nights” during “Carnival” (the festive season before Lent) had tired him out a little. In other words, the poem emerged from a season of raucous partying.
- Finally, while the references to “sword” and “sheath” are primarily metaphorical, they help evoke an age when soldiers, aristocrats, and other “gallant” young men out on the town might have carried literal swords in literal sheaths. (Byron was an aristocrat, a naval captain’s son, and an eventual soldier who owned swords himself—and occasionally appeared with them in portraits.)
20
Q
Literary context
A
- Byron’s poem draws on an extensive literary ballad tradition, and is directly adapted from at least one older work. The immediate source seems to have been the Scottish folk ballad “The Jolly Beggar,” one version of which, collected in David Herd’s anthology Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, Etc. a few decades before Byron’s poem, contains a refrain that begins, “And we’ll gang nae mair a roving / Sae late into the night.” (The poem is written in the Scots dialect, which contains variant spellings and versions of many English words: “gang” = “go,” “nae” = “no,” etc.).
- But other versions of “The Jolly Beggar,” and other songs and ballads containing a similar refrain, had been floating around for ages by the time Byron wrote his poem. A variation on “The Jolly Beggar,” called “The Jolly Gauger,” appears in the 18th-century collection The Merry Muses of Caledonia, supposedly compiled by Robert Burns. A sea shanty called “The Maid of Amsterdam,” a.k.a., “A-Roving,” dates at least to the early 1600s and also has a “go no more a-roving” refrain.
- It’s clear that Byron was familiar with, and drawing from, at least one of these older works. However, this doesn’t mean he was plagiarizing. Instead, he was alluding to the older song(s) while making substantive changes to create an original work. In particular, he removed or dialed back the extended narratives and broad sexual comedy that mark these earlier ballads. Rather than an elaborate dirty song, “So We’ll Go No More a Roving” is a short lyric poem that highlights the themes of aging and renunciation (giving up on old pleasures).
- In adapting an old ballad, Byron was very much a poet of his time. His fellow Romantic poets, like Wordsworth and Keats, also reached back to the ballad tradition to shape their themes and their style, rejecting the measured elegance of the earlier 18th century in English poetry in favor of earthier language and simpler meter. Byron wouldn’t have enjoyed being lumped in with either of these contemporaries, though: he insulted them both spectacularly on a number of occasions, calling Wordsworth “Turdsworth” and disparaging Keats’s “piss a bed poetry.” In this kind of witty, haughty scorn, as well as in his usual poetic style and subject matter, Byron considered himself more of a descendant of earlier satirists like Alexander Pope.
21
Q
Historical context
A
- Lord Byron (1788-1824) was not only a major figure in literary history but a historic figure in general. One of the first true celebrities, he ranked among the most famous (and infamous) people in the world during the early decades of the 1800s. His impact on European culture during this period was profound. Born into an aristocratic family as the 6th Baron Byron, his literary star rose after the publication of his long poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812). His wife Annabella coined the word “Byromania” to describe the hype that swelled around him.
- As well as being a popular and controversial author, Byron lived a life full of scandal. He was known throughout Europe and beyond for his love affairs, breakups, debts, unusual pets, athletic feats, and volatile personality. He was bisexual, though this fact was less well known during his lifetime, and was publicly accused of an incestuous romance with his half sister, Augusta Leigh. One of his lovers, the Lady Caroline Lamb, called him “mad, bad and dangerous to know.”
- Byron’s writings and notorious persona gave rise to a literary/cultural archetype called the “Byronic hero.” The Byronic hero was proud, brooding, volatile, passionate, and rebellious. This archetype is closely associated with the Romantic literary movement of which Byron was a part.
- Basically, Byron packed more wildness and drama into his 36 years (he died of illness while fighting in the Greek War of Independence) than most people fit into lifetimes twice as long. The occasion for “So We’ll Go No More a Roving” was a break he took after partying too much during Carnival (the festival season preceding Lent) while living in Venice. As he wrote to his friend Thomas Moore in an explanatory note:
