This satiric poem was inspired by Byron\u2019s own swimming feat, which was itself an attempt to recreate Leander\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n
Byron was an accomplished \u2013 and proud \u2013 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<\/i>, and in an entertaining letter to his friend, Henry Drury. Byron told Drury that the swim took an hour and ten minutes.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n If, in the month of dark December,<\/p>\n Leander, who was nightly wont<\/p>\n (What maid will not the tale remember?)<\/p>\n To cross thy stream, broad Hellespont!<\/p>\n If, when the wintry tempest roar\u2019d,<\/p>\n He sped to Hero, nothing loth,<\/p>\n And thus of old thy current pour\u2019d,<\/p>\n Fair Venus! how I pity both!<\/p>\n For me, degenerate modern wretch,<\/p>\n Though in the genial month of May,<\/p>\n My dripping limbs I faintly stretch,<\/p>\n And think I\u2019ve done a feat to-day.<\/p>\n But since he cross\u2019d the rapid tide,<\/p>\n According to the doubtful story,<\/p>\n To woo,\u2014and\u2014Lord knows what beside,<\/p>\n And swam for Love, as I for Glory;<\/p>\n \u2019Twere hard to say who fared the best:<\/p>\n Sad mortals! thus the Gods still plague you!<\/p>\n He lost his labour, I my jest:<\/p>\n For he was drown\u2019d, and I\u2019ve the ague.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This satiric poem was inspired by Byron\u2019s own swimming feat, which was itself an attempt to recreate Leander\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}