Explore "The Life of Lord Byron" by John Galt on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I have never heard exactly where the tragedy of The Two Foscari was written: that it was imagined in Venice is probable. The subject is, perhaps, not very fit for a drama, for it has no action; but it is rich in tragic materials, revenge and affection, and the composition is full of the peculiar stuff of the poet's own mind. The exulting sadness with which Jacopo Foscari looks in the first scene from the window, on the Adriatic, is Byron himself recalling his enjoyment of the sea.
How many a time have ICloven with arm still lustier, heart more daring, The wave all roughen'd: with a swimmer's stroke / Flinging the billows back from my drench'd hair, And laughing from my lip th' audacious brine / Which kiss'd it like a wine-cup.