Don Juan is a long satirical narrative poem by Lord Byron, an epic in ottava rima that follows the fortunes and amours of its young hero. It ranges across Europe, mocking politics, love, war, and social hypocrisy with wit and digression. It is worth listening to for its lively verse, irony, and comic energy.
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Cover illustration generated by AI.
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
DON JUAN By Lord Byron [Illustration] [Illustration] [Note: Stanza and Line numbers have not been included.] Contents DEDICATION CANTO THE FIRST CANTO THE SECOND. CANTO THE THIRD. CANTO THE FOURTH. CANTO THE FIFTH. CANTO THE SIXTH. CANTO THE SEVENTH. CANTO THE EIGHTH. CANTO THE NINTH. CANTO THE TENTH.
CANTO THE ELEVENTH. CANTO THE TWELFTH. CANTO THE THIRTEENTH. CANTO THE FOURTEENTH. CANTO THE FIFTEENTH. CANTO THE SIXTEENTH. CANTO THE SEVENTEENTH.
DEDICATION Bob Southey! You’re a poet, poet laureate, And representative of all the race. Although ’tis true that you turned out a Tory at Last, yours has lately been a common case. And now my epic renegade, what are ye at With all the lakers, in and out of place? A nest of tuneful persons, to my eye Like four and twenty blackbirds in a pye, Which pye being opened they began to sing’ (This old song and new simile holds good), ‘A dainty dish to set before the King’ Or Regent, who admires such kind of food. And Coleridge too has lately taken wing, But like a hawk encumbered with his hood, Explaining metaphysics to the nation. I wish he would explain his explanation. You, Bob, are rather insolent, you know, At being disappointed in your wish To supersede all warblers here below, And be the only blackbird in the dish. And then you overstrain yourself, or so, And tumble downward like the flying fish Gasping on deck, because you soar too high, Bob, And fall for lack of moisture quite a dry Bob. And Wordsworth in a rather long Excursion (I think the quarto holds five hundred pages) Has given a sample from the vasty version
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