From DON JUAN

The following passage below is a description of the charming Donna Julia, a close acquaintance of Don Juan’s mother.

Her glossy¹ hair was clustered² o'er a brow

Bright with intelligence, and fair, and smooth;

Her eyebrow³'s shape was like the aerial⁴ bow,

Her cheek all purple with the beam⁵ of youth,

5 Mounting, at times, to a transparent glow,

As if her veins ran⁶ lightning; she, in sooth⁷,

Possessed an air and grace by no means common:

Her stature tall - I hate a dumpy⁸ woman.

Wedded⁹ she was some years, and to a man

Of fifty, and such husbands are in plenty;

And yet, I think, instead of such a ONE

Twere¹⁰ better to have TWO of five-and-twenty,

Especially in countries near the sun:

And now I think on't, "mi vien in mente",¹¹

Ladies even of the most uneasy virtue

Prefer a spouse¹² whose age is short of thirty.

Tis a sad thing, I cannot choose but say,

And all the fault of that indecent sun,

Who cannot leave alone our helpless clay'³,

20 But will keep baking, broiling¹⁴, burning on,

That howsoever¹⁵ people fast¹⁶ and pray,

The flesh is frail¹⁷, and so the soul undone:

What men call gallantry¹⁸, and gods adultery,

Is much more common where the climate's sultry¹⁹

1. glossy: shiny.

2. clustered:grouped together.

3. eyebrow: line of hair above the eye.

4. aerial: light and delicate.

5. beam: radiance.

6. ran: contained.

7. sooth: truth.

8. dumpy: short and plump.

9. wedded: married.

10. 'Twere: it would be.

11. "mi vien in mente": (Italian) it comes to my mind.

12. spouse: marriage partner.

13. clay: body.

14. broiling: making hot.

15. howsoever: however.

16. fast: abstain from eating.

17. frail: weak.

18. gallantry: polite attentiveness to women

19. sultry: oppressively hot and humid.

1. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?

2. How many syllables are there to the line? Is the number regular? And the number of strong stresses?

3. What do you think is the function of the final rhyming couplet? What does Byron attempt to do with this couplet?

4. Is Donna Julia an attractive woman? Make a list of the words used to describe her. Do you think the narrator of the poem likes her? Give reasons for your answer.

5. What is the narrator suggesting in lines 9-12? Where else in the poem does he reinforce this concept?

6. What is the attitude of the narrator towards heat and the sun? What is the effect of the sun on the human body? Do you think he is being serious?

7. What is your overall impression of the narrator from this passage?

8. Does the climate affect the way you feel? Do you think the climate can determine the character of a people?

9. What do you think about marriage between people widely differing ages? What are the possible advantages and disadvantages of marriages of this kind?

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