Prompt: Discuss the idea(s) developed by the text creator in your chosen text about the ways in which individuals pursue or compromise their happiness. (Jan 2010)

1

Away with your fictions of flimsy romance,

     Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove!

  Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance,

     Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love.

2

  Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with phantasy glow,

     Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove;

  From what blest inspiration your sonnets would flow,

     Could you ever tasted the first kiss love!

3

  If Apollo should e’er his assistance refuse,

    Or the Nine be disposed from your service to rove,

  Invoke them no more, bid adieu to the muse,

     And try the effect of the first kiss of love.

4

  I hate you, ye cold compositions of art!

     Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove,

  I court the effusions that spring from the heart,

     Which throbs with delight to the first kiss of love.

5

  Your shepherds, your flocks, those fantastical themes,

     Perhaps may amuse, yet they never can move:

  Arcadia displays but a region of dreams;

     What are visions like these to the first kiss of love.

6

  Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth,

     From Adam till now, has with wretchedness strove;

  Some portion of paradise still is on earth,

     And Eden revives in the first kiss of love.

7

  When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past—

     For years fleet away with the wings of the dove—

  The dearest remembrance will still be the last,

     Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.

George Gordon’s (Lord Byron) poem, The First Kiss of Love, speaks greatly to the immense happiness found when one experiences their first moment of intimacy with someone that they love. This relates to the lifestyle Byron led, a life filled with much romance, infatuation, and many lovers, which was a paramount motivation for the majority of his work. The inspiration for this piece, however, is difficult to determine due to his numerous, yet fleeting, romantic endeavours; nonetheless, his involvement with a young choir boy at Trinity College could be one of the inspirations of this poem. He described the time he spent at Trinity College in pursuit of the young choirboy as an “intense, though pure love and passion.” The intensity of an experience as such is something few of the poets at the time had truly experienced. Byron’s poem was not written as a tale of fantasy but as one derived from truth, for he was aware of the joy which came with the first kiss of love – incomparable to all else. Although his lifestyle was not greatly respected in his time, Byron’s life advocated for happiness as an outcome of loving whomever one chooses to.

In the first stanza of the poem Byron dispels “fictions of flimsy romance” from the mind of the reader as in the 1800s romantic literature was greatly influenced by the imagination of the author and was rarely based on reality. Byron, however, due to his many experiences in the way of love, had occurrences to draw from as he wrote, unlike most of his fellow poets. Byron disregards the tales of romance and instead desires the “rapture” that comes with pursuing love as a source of  joy. This goes to exemplify the thought that pursuing love can act as a source of happiness in an individual’s life.  He later states “I court the effusions that spring from the heart/ Which throbs with delight to the first kiss of love.” This encompasses Byron’s outlook on life because despite the hatred that he may have received, he allowed himself to love wholeheartedly and completely without fear. Byron’s lifestyle supports the idea that when an individual allows themselves to love whomever they please they are pursuing their own personal happiness. Unlike what his society would have encouraged, he had sexual relations with whomever he wanted, men and women alike, and was reprimanded for it; that being said, unlike the many around him, he lived life in pursuit of happiness as reflected in this poem.

Byron continues by critiquing his fellow poets as they compromised their happiness in hopes of living up to societal standards of normal. He refers to their work as “cold compositions of art” because of the emotion their work lacked due to their compromising in the ways of love. Byron’s judgement goes to prove that when an individual does not allow themselves to pursuit love they risk losing happiness in their own lives. Byron knew the euphoria that came with pursuing relationships, even ones that lacked potential. By choosing not to do so an individual compromises their happiness as exemplified in Byron’s critiquing of his fellow poets. His fellow poets rely on fiction for inspiration when they write because they have no sense of the sensation of love or true happiness due to it. As argued by Byron, what their lives lacked in love their poetry lacked in inspiration. This was pivotal as the poets’ willingness to sacrifice love compromised their happiness.

After the berating of his fellow poets, Byron goes on to compare the joy of love to the ecstasy found in The Garden of Eden, revealing further aspects of his life. This sense of ecstasy Byron was able to find in the many relationships he had, but specifically in his pursuit of his distant cousin Mary Chaworth. Though his passion was unrequited, he was so passionately in love with Mary that he went to the lengths of compromising his education in pursuit of happiness through love with Mary. His pursuit of Mary illustrates the idea that an individual’s happiness can be found in the rapt that comes with chasing love. Albeit Mary rejected him, Byron was able to use the passion that he felt for her and reflect it into his other pieces such as The Adieu. When compared to his fellow poets, Byron’s pursuit of happiness allowed his writing to be more free flowing and honest as he did not have to imagine the beauty and joy of life, for he had lived it. Byron’s life and poem goes to prove that love, the pursuit as well as the experience of, is where an individual is capable of finding their happiness.

At the end of the poem Byron depicts the life of one who chose to pursuit their love, as compared to one who chose to compromise it, as exceptional  making it evident that the complex experience of love inspires joy within an individual. His pursuits of love as a source of happiness, though at times unrequited, lead to a fulfilling, joyful life for Byron over all. While his poetic counterparts, who were willing to compromise their happiness by denying their love, lived comparatively less fulfilling, tedious lives. Love, as explored in the poem, when pursued can bring about joy for the pursuer, portrayed by Byron; that being said, when love is compromised, as Byron’s fellow poets did, it can bring about emptiness and a constant questioning of the validity of one’s choices.

Bibliogroahy:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/lord-byron

Photo Citations:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-IJdR4oUFwq8/TXzJhhwbv0I/AAAAAAAAAH4/Q8jQp_1atXw/s1600/chasing+love.JPG