English History

  • Poets
    • Byron
      • Letters
      • Poems
    • Keats
      • Letters
      • Poetry
    • Shakespeare
      • Poetry
      • Plays
    • Tennyson
  • Middle Ages
  • Vikings
  • Romans
  • Kings and Queens
    • Stuarts
    • Tudor
  • About
    • History of English Art
    • Privacy & Cookie Policy
    • Contact
    • The Right to Display Public Domain Images
    • Author & Reference Information For Students

Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos

This satiric poem was inspired by Byron’s own swimming feat, which was itself an attempt to recreate Leander’s swim across the Hellespont to visit his lover, Hero. Byron attempted the swim twice; on 3 May 1810, he succeeded, swimming with a companion named Ekenhead. And they technically swam from Abydos (the European coast of the Hellespont) to Sestos (the Asian coast).

Byron was an accomplished – and proud – swimmer. The club foot which prevented him from succeeding at most sports was no handicap in the water. This particular feat was also mentioned in Canto II of Don Juan, and in an entertaining letter to his friend, Henry Drury. Byron told Drury that the swim took an hour and ten minutes.

 

If, in the month of dark December,

Leander, who was nightly wont

(What maid will not the tale remember?)

To cross thy stream, broad Hellespont!

If, when the wintry tempest roar’d,

He sped to Hero, nothing loth,

And thus of old thy current pour’d,

Fair Venus! how I pity both!

For me, degenerate modern wretch,

Though in the genial month of May,

My dripping limbs I faintly stretch,

And think I’ve done a feat to-day.

But since he cross’d the rapid tide,

According to the doubtful story,

To woo,—and—Lord knows what beside,

And swam for Love, as I for Glory;

’Twere hard to say who fared the best:

Sad mortals! thus the Gods still plague you!

He lost his labour, I my jest:

For he was drown’d, and I’ve the ague.

 

Link/cite this page

If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.

Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. "Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos" https://englishhistory.net/byron/poems/written-after-swimming-from-sestos-to-abydos/, April 19, 2015

You are here: Home » Byron » Poems » Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos

Search English History

More Byron Content

  • Lord Byron
  • Byron Biography
  • Byron Timeline
  • Ada Lovelace
  • Lord Byron Poems
  • Byron Letters
  • Byron Quotes
  • More English Poets

Popular Posts

Lachin Y Gair
I Would I Were a Careless Child
By the Rivers of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept – Lord Byron Poem
Manfred Dramatic Poem
Lara, excerpt from the first canto
Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull – Lord Byron
Don Juan Canto
Don Juan: Dedication, first published in 1818
Epistle to Augusta – Lord Byron Poem
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

The Tudors

Lord Byron

John Keats

shakespeare

Copyright © 1999-2023 All Rights Reserved.
English History
Other Sites: Make A Website Hub

Copyright © 2023 · English History 2015