"I Leave The Thing a Problem, Like All Things":
The Example of Byron
A suggestive, representative introduction to the life, the work, the letters, and the irrepressible voice of George Gordon, Lord Byron--with reference to certain enduring critical problems and promising perspectives that ought to arise when you delve deeply into the English Romantic Period's Most Popular, Most Topical, and Greatest Poet.
That's the talk I gave yesterday afternoon.
An "overstuffed yakfest" is how I summed it up later, but I think a good time was had by most, if not all. I hope so. I had a great audience, certainly, and I provided visual aids, thick handouts, enthusiasm, and as much humor as I could pack in between quotations. While quoting, I can let Byron provide the humor, the satire, or the pathos--and sometimes all three in the same line.
Of course, giving a talk often shows you the better, more focused talk you should have given, but that's for next time. (I should make those notes on focal points and put them in the file . . . .)
Here's the quotation I meant to put up on the board as part of that better focus:
But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
---------Lord Byron,
from Don Juan, Canto III, stanza 88