My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Byron’s Lara, especially the first canto. The passion and drive of youth and the reflection, sadness and loss of age. This work still sheds light today with this item from Canto 2, VIII (lines 867-8): “Religion–Freedom–Vengeance–what you will,/A word’s enough to raise mankind to kill”.

I have to say that I really enjoy such storytelling in verse. Byron does it so well. Today, some authors try to craft the perfect prose but forsake their story or plot. They craft beautiful structures but nothing adorns these empty shells. I think we’ve lost much with the passing of epic storytelling in verse.

My edition also included Jacqueline, a poem by Samuel Rogers. Not the best story, but some very nice verse. That’s something he was known for, especially with his most famous piece, The Pleasures of Memory (1792).