Comments on Lord Byron's "So, We'll Go No More A Roving"

"So, We'll Go No More A Roving" by Lord Byron

Katy Wehr has made a lovely, melodic interpretation of Lord Byron's lyrical poem.
http://cdbaby.com/mp3lofi/katywehr-11.m3u

Here are a few interesting comments on the the origin of the poem and Byron's influences in writing it from the oddly named plagiarist poems website.

A'Rovin'
2002-10-28Added by: Maddy

In 1817 Byron was living in Venice, in the Palazzo Mocenigo. It was described by one of his friends as a cross between a brothel and a menagerie, since, as well as numerous prostitutes, Byron kept for company a number of peacocks and a monkey which were allowed to roam around the staircase to look ornamental (mind where you tread!). Downstairs he kept a wolf, a fox and other large beasties. He had grown fat and dressed in lavish clothing with many rings. Sometimes the other occupants of his palace disturbed his sleep with their squawking and quarrelling to the extent that he slept the night in his gondola on the lagoon.

It was during the famous Carnivale of Venice, when people roam the streets in masks and party for four days, that Byron wrote this charming poem.

It was immediately satirised with this shanty which is probably better known than the poem itself-

"A'rovin', a'rovin'!

Since rovin's been my ru-i-in,

I'll go no more a'rovin

with you, fair maid!

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,

mark well what I do say!

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,

and she was mistress of her trade,

I'll go no more 'arovin'

with you, fair maid!

I put my hand upon her waist

mark well what I do say!

I put my hand upon her waist

that was so trim and tightly lace

I'll go no more 'arovin'

with you, fair maid!

I put my hand upon her thigh

mark well what I do say!

I put my hand upon her thigh

She said "Young Sir, you're rather high!"

and so on.......

with you, fair maid!


2004-02-01Added by: KTGeorge Gordon

Lord Byron, wrote the poem So We’ll Go No More A-Roving when he was in his late twenties. The first line of the poem “So we’ll go no more a-roving” makes it seem unlikely that he was alone. Does it mean him and a woman or him and a friend? At the age of twenty-nine he wrote a letter to his friend Moore in which he included the poem. He wrote “Though I did not dissipate overmuch… yet I find “the sword wearing out the scabbard,” though I have but just turned the corner of twenty-nine.” So back to the first line of the poem. By “we”, does Lord Byron mean he and Moore? The weeks of dissipation he mentions are during the Venetian carnival.

The second stanza begins with the line “For the sword outwears its sheath.” He mentions this also in his letter to Moore. By sword, Byron means the soul, and by sheath, he means the body. Lord Byron is not at all old – he has just lived his life so wildly, so energetically, that he is already worn out. In fact, he dies at the young age of thirty-six. The second stanza:

For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And Love itself have rest.

Byron’s body cannot keep going at the pace he wants to. He is aware that he is wearing himself out. Byron was notorious for his extravagant way of life, for his love affairs and for his poetry. He was a handsome and wealthy young man, he seemed to have “a way with women.” He separated with from his wife soon after the birth of their daughter, and was rumoured to have had an incestuous relationship with his half-sister Augusta. He also had an affair with his friend’s half-sister, Claire Claremont during which she became pregnant. It seems that most of his time was taken up with women and loving. The third stanza begins:

Though the night was made for loving,

Does Byron think that that is all the night was made for? Not for sleeping? No wonder he is worn out. Now he realises that he has worn himself out, that he is paying the price for his wild youth. The poem is full of soft sounds, for example “sword,” “sheath” and “rest,” which portray Byron’s weariness. He uses long vowel sounds to emphasise the lethargy which he feels. He still loves, he still wants to love, but he realises that he is worn out and that they “will go no more a-roving / By the light of the moon.”

It seems a pity that such a great poet as Byron should waste away his life in this way.

Correction: Shanty preceded Byron's poem
2005-08-04Added by: Darcy Horrocks. Just to correct an error in Maddy's comment above:

The "shanty" is actually, or at least originally, "The Maid of Amsterdam" and it precedes Byron's poem by about 200 years, first appearing in 1608 in a London play by Robert Heywood called 'The Rape of Lucrece'.