Last week I mentioned Lord Byron’s weight loss diet, and the week before that I said you could find anything on YouTube. This week I’m merging the two.
Here is Richard Chamberlain as Byron in the movie Lady Caroline Lamb (Sarah Miles)
I think he looks very Byronic!
When We Two Parted is a lovely poem about lovers breaking up, as relevant to young lovers today as it was when Byron wrote it. I could not discover who Byron was writing about, but I like to think it was some true love now lost to the ages.
The poem endures, even on YouTube.
Here is the version that I think channels Byron the closest:
Here is the version as I would have recited in my youth, when in pain over a lost love.
Here is an animated version:
The moog synthesizer-jellyfish version (I kid you not)
And the most mind-boggling of them all, the I-cannot-believe-this version:
Vote for your favorite! And what do you think of Richard Chamberlain as Lord Byron?
(Thanks to Nebula whose comment last week about the Jonny Lee Miller miniseries of Byron got me started on YouTube)
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Ah, YouTube is the wiki of the 21st century. You can find everything there, including a royal channel from QEII.
My vote’s on the jellyfish. 🙂
I have to go with the first one. I am somewhat of a purist when it comes to my beloved Byron. I hadn’t heard about the Johnny Lee Miller version of Byron’s life. I’ll have to check it out. Although Richard Chamberlain DOES make a pretty good Byron. He was much taller than people have perceived him.
Now, how did I KNOW Keira would choose the jellyfish ! 🙂
Louisa, sometimes we forget what a great poet Byron was when distracted by details of his life, but this poem showed an elegant depth of feeling that still resonates today. I agree that version #1 does it the most justice.
But, Keira, I couldn’t leave out the jellyfish one!
The young Richard Chamberlin does cut a fine figure of a man. His role in the Thorn Birds was heart-palpitatingly fabulous every time I saw it as a teen and in my twenties.
Louisa, what?! You mean, I’m predictable? Hm. (grumble) But that jellyfish is cute. 🙂
I remember watching the Miller miniseries in England! Lots of fun. 🙂
And I luv YouTube! Never thought about looking for Byron videos. Now I have a whole new category to search…
You know, that mispronounced blue-grassy song really wasn’t half-bad. 😉
I like the second one best. I wish they’d overlaid (?) the poem over the Richard Chamberlin one. And, yes, I’d go for Chamberlin as Byron but without that gold lame’ figure at the end of the clip. A bit freaky, if you ask me.
And the last one, well that’s just not right!
Maggie, I guess it was better than some blue-grassy songs.
Santa, I’m with you, though. It was just WRONG.