International Byron Society

Hi all,

Posting here for the first time. Actually I have a very specific reason for it. Once I heard, on the BBC documentary "Essential Byron" a poem being recited. It was supposedly called Thoughts On Freedom. It really impressed me. Does anyone know this "mysterious" poem? And does anyone know if it is published and where I can find it? On the web it seems unfindable.

I have been able to decipher most of the lines from the audiofile (to be found on http://www.richardcoyle.freeola.com/TREATS/treats.html), and so far i have:

Thoughts On Freedom

They only can feel freedom truly
Who have worn long chains
The healthy feel not healthy
In all its glow in all its glory of full veins
And frushing cheeks and bounding pulses

[This line is quite indecipherable to me, something like:]
"Till they have no nee(n) in to rag them of some malady"

That links them to their beds
In some white common feverish hospital
Where all are tended and none cared for
Left to public nurses
Paid for pity
Till they die or go forth cured
But without kindness

Hope someone can help me out with the one mysterious line. And maybe where this poem is printed somewhere. I would really appreciate it, as I think it's so relevant what's said here and I could use the poem well for my course on ethics.

Greets,
Dirk-Jan from the Netherlands

Sorry that no one answered your question and this is very late for your project.

I've had a listen to it.

The line in question is:

'Til they have known the interregnum of some malady'

also:

'The healthy feel not health'

and it does sound like he says 'frushing', but it's 'flushing'.

I'm not sure where the lines come from. Anyone?

Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth,

Thanks a lot for your reaction, hadn't expected one anymore. Don't worry it's too late, the project is long over but it's mostly a personal interest. Special thanks for the sentence with "interregnum", I was really really wondering whatever he said there. I only just have an internet connection in my new place. This is about the first thing I do (after checking my mail). I did read your mail in a quick glance at work.

I think the lines are very beautiful. Strange how it can't be found anywhere in one of his works and that no one here seems to know of it. If we really want to know, maybe we should contact the BBC and ask where they got the excerpt from... I'm still curious about that

Well thanks again and hopefully someone will be able to find out where the lines come from.

Dirk-Jan

Hello Botanic Hero,

I was flipping through a 'Selected Works' edition (ed. Jerome McGann) when I came across the poem. It is entitiled [Thoughts on Freedom] (presumably in brackets because it lacked a title and this is the tradtional one), and is dated, also in brackets, [1823]. So, a late production.

It would be interesting to pursue the context in which he wrote it.

Elizabeth