[lit-ideas] Re: Britain & the Falklands

  • From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:44:28 -0500

Lawrence mentions, " Britain’s resignation as 'the' world sea power"



Reminded me of this pair of stanzas from Byron's Don Juan Canto I


IV
Nelson was once Britannia's god of war,
    And still should be so, but the tide is turn'd;
There's no more to be said of Trafalgar,
    'T is with our hero quietly inurn'd;
Because the army's grown more popular,
    At which the naval people are concern'd;
Besides, the prince is all for the land-service,
Forgetting Duncan, Nelson, Howe, and Jervis.

V
Brave men were living before Agamemnon
    And since, exceeding valorous and sage,
A good deal like him too, though quite the same none;
    But then they shone not on the poet's page,
And so have been forgotten: -- I condemn none,
    But can't find any in the present age
Fit for my poem (that is, for my new one);
So, as I said, I'll take my friend Don Juan.

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