"Maid of Athens, ere we part" is a poem by

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

, written in 1810 and dedicated to a young girl of

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

.English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald. The Harvard Classics (1909–1914) It begins: Each

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have ei ...

of the poem ends with the same

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

refrain, which Byron translated as "My life, I love you!". It may be viewed as an example of

macaronic Macaronic language uses a mixture of languages, particularly bilingual puns or situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context (rather than simply discrete segments of a text being in different languages). Hybrid words ...

verse, although it lacks the humorous intent typical of that genre.

History of the poem

According to C. G. Brouzas,C. G. Brouzas, "Byron's Maid of Athens: Her family and surroundings". Philological Papers v. 7, 65--??, West Virginia University Bulletin, Series 49, n. 12--VI, June 1949. Reviewed by H. Jenkins in The Journal of Hellenic Studies v. 73, p. 200 (1953) Byron's "Maid of Athens" was born Teresa Makri, or Makris, in 1797. She was the daughter of Tarsia Makri, at whose house Byron lodged briefly in 1809 and in February 1810. Byron apparently fell in love with the 12-year-old girl; in a letter to Henry Drury the poet declares to be "dying for love of three Greek Girls at Athens", "Teresa, Mariana, and Kattinka", and wrote the poem for her before departing for

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

. On his way back from Turkey to the

Morea The Morea ( el, Μορέας or ) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottom ...

, on 17 July 1810, he stayed at Mrs. Makri's house for another ten days. At some point he offered £500 for the girl – an offer which evidently was not accepted. Byron never met Teresa again. She eventually married James Black (1803–1868) and died impoverished in 1875 in Athens, Greece.Richard Edgeumbe, letter to "The Times", 25 October 1875

Musical settings

The poem has been set to music by numerous composers, including

Charles Gounod Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...

William Horsley William Horsley (18 November 177412 June 1858) was an English musician. His compositions were numerous, and include amongst other instrumental pieces three symphonies for full orchestra. More important are his glees, of which he published fi ...

,Philadelphia: Published at G. Willig's Musical Magazine, c. 1814. and Henry Robinson Allen. Isaac Nathan's rendition appears in an album "the best songs of the world".

References

External links

* The poem's full text at

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* {{librivox book , title=Maid of Athens , author=George Gordon, Lord Byron Poetry by Lord Byron Works about Greece