Published April 22, 2009 | 
So, we’ll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have a rest.Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we’ll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.–George Gordon, Lord Byron
I love that poem
but it brings the chorus of “The Maid of Amsterdam” irresistably to mind:
“A rovin’, a rovin’,
Since rovin’s been my ru-i-in,
I’ll go no more a roving
With you fair maid!”
Byron took the words of the traditional sea shanty (also well-known in another verson as the Scottish “Jolly Beggar), and made it more profound. However, given Byron’s behavior with women, the shanty seems so pertinent.
When I was last in college, I wound up being given a song composed by a fellow student that was this poem set to music she had written. She did a fine job. I can still sing it to this day.
Oh, I love that one.
I love this poem, and have since high school (when the general pace of English classes presented me with many opportunities to meditate on a poem for 30-40 minutes. Some such opportunities turned out to be valuable.) I still don’t think of it as quite terrestrial, though.
I wonder at the original pronunciation, as I don’t see “a-roving” and “loving” as rhymes, and that bugs me…