Can I get an analysis of the poem : "If sometimes in the haunts of men" by Lord Byron?

Answer 1

MY running commentary:

If sometimes in the haunts of men
Thine image from my breast may fade,
The lonely hour presents again
The semblance of thy gentle shade:
And now that sad and silent hour
Thus much of thee can still restore,
And sorrow unobserved may pour
The plaint she dare not speak before.
------- If sometimes I engage in love with other men (this refers to actual males not all people), your picture/image may fade from my mind but at that time comes your gentle image that consoles and sorrow (referred to as female) will not make me sad.

Oh, pardon that in crowds awhile
I waste one thought I owe to thee,
And self-condemn'd, appear to smile,
Unfaithful to thy memory:
------- Excuse me that at times in society, I appear to forget about you and regret that in your estimation, I appear unfaithful.

Nor deem that memory less dear,
That then I seem not to repine;
I would not fools should overhear
One sigh that should be wholly thine.
------------------- No. I don't regard your your memory as inconsequential my dear that makes me regret guilt. I believe only fools do not comprehend the special regard I have for you.

If not the goblet pass unquaff'd,
It is not drain'd to banish care;
The cup must hold a deadlier draught,
That brings a Lethe for despair.
-----------Note the conditional "if" and the image: "The cup must hold a deadlier draught." Basically, alluding to the idea that if he were to be denied those feelings, he'd suffer despair.

And could Oblivion set my soul
From all her troubled visions free,
I'd dash to earth the sweetest bowl
That drown'd a single thought of thee.
----------- And my soul would be obliterated by troubling/haunting visions of your picture/image. I'd sacrifice any item I value the most that attempts to interfere with my thoughts about you.

For wert thou vanish'd from my mind,
Where could my vacant bosom turn?
And who could then remain behind
To honour thine abandon'd Urn?
--------- For what if you disappeared from my mind, To where would I turn to nourish my fond feelings? And who would I leave behind to sing carry my burden of passionate feelings for you? (note image - abandoned urn).

No, no--it is my sorrow's pride
That last dear duty to fulfil:
Though all the world forget beside,
'Tis meet that I remember still.
------ No, no, the burden is mine and am proud about to carry it. It is a duty to me.

For well I know, that such had been
Thy gentle care for him, who now
Unmourn'd shall quit this mortal scene,
---------Because I know very well that that has been your passion also to love and gently care for "him" ( refers to speaker) who would one day leave the worldly scene ie. I am a mortal human being. unmourned implies uncared for.

Where none regarded him, but thou:
And, oh! I feel in that was given
A blessing never meant for me;
Thou wert too like a dream of Heaven
For earthly Love to merit thee.
-------Uncared for by no one else except you
Ohh I feel as if it was a divine blessing never meant for me. You were (are- implying present) more like a divine dream undeserved by a mere mortal, an earthling like myself.

(1812)

*
Despite Byron's reputation as a womanizer and a world-class object of heterosexual love, he was, apparently, throughout his life romantically attached to men. His handsome servant, William Fletcher, “was at Byron’s side from 1804, when Byron was sixteen, almost without interval until his master died.”

It was one of his Homoerotic Poems together with The Cornelian, "To Eddleston," Last Words On Greeceetc.
“On This Day I Complete My Thirty-sixth Year” (1824), as well as "Love and Death" (1824) and “Last Words on Greece” (1824), all three were written for Lukas - a young man he [had] met in Greece, where he died in 1824 after joining the Greek revolt against the Turks.
Byron fled England not only because of a scandal over his affair with his half-sister, but also because of the repressive anti-same-sex laws in England, where the penalty for sodomy was death. Homosexual desire was one of the reasons he first went to Greece and the anti-same sex sentiment in England may account for the famous Byronic stance of lone defiance.

**
Read my commentary closely and then write the analysis.

good luck
.

Answer 2

Sure. There's free ones all over the web.

Answer 3

...sounds like it's an outpour of feelings for a worthy being, or something.

Answer 4

yep