Byron and the story of Prisoner of Chillon

Times of persecution and capture
Of religious upstarts.
Prison atop a huge cliff
Overseeing the Lake Leman.
Three brothers
Father having been
Killed
“For the God his foes denied.”


Young brother, the beautiful one
After his Mother’s manner
Delicate. Dead.
Next brother for combat, the hunt
And rugged outdoorsman trips.
Dead. Only able to talk behind
Chained pillar.
Not to see his own blood and trust.


Third the Narrator.
And eventually alone.
With morbid burial spots
In the dark, damp, dismal room.


Mental faculties
Losing ground through hunger, shock
Loneliness.
Sense of waste.
Haunted by corrupt process.


Came the Day of Freedom.
Yes, and announced by songs
Of one bird approaching…


“I learned to love despair
And thus when they appeared at last,
And all my bonds aside were cast,
These heavy walls to me had grown
A hermitage-and all my own.”