Analysis of "The Byronic Method" by Christopher Salerno

 Poem found here: "The Byronic Method" by Christopher Salerno

I don't know if a reader needs to know Lord Byron or the 'Byronic Hero' to relate to contextualize the poem.  Rather, I think the poem does the job of garnering interest in someone like me, who fell away from poetry and is somewhat coming back, to look up the terminology.  Don Juan, the moody passionate lover.  There's an added dimension when looking up the reference.

And what does this poem reference to?  When reading the first two lines, I'm stationed in the "now" "There is no code or corrective shoe / Only raspberries to cover the tips of my thumbs."  When I read the word "code" next to "raspberry" I think of technology, raspberry pi; however, to the context of the lines, this also could refer to Lord Byron as well along with the image of the "corrective shoe" that refers to his club foot.  So there's already an intertwining of the literary and the now.

"When I sexted you a snorkel you sexted me a squid."  Interesting lack of comma in between "snorkel" and "you."  Grammar wise, this should work, but we're not in this world of grammar.  We're in the world of the image: snorkel, and squid. Also we're in the realm of modern romance with "sexting."  Cant you feel the romance?  They do, "Finally, a language for our modified love."  This code they are creating since there is "no code."  Love through memes, maybe.

Since the poem focuses us to see the images as symbols, a code of love: "spires, ants on bananas, / some honeysuckle I saw in Syracuse," (the speaker pauses to state this question, "What else / counterfeits like lust?) "A fire escape, a fluid sky. / The endless ache of our minor works.

Why does this list needs to have an unfurling definition?  The sexting images forces the reader to see the above items as sexual.  And I can kind of see it -- "spires," a phallic reference, ants on bananas, a phallic and maybe even explicit oral reference, just like "honeysuckle."

But the speakers doesn't let us linger in a "lust" atmosphere since the overanalyzing of the images comes into play with the question "What else / counterfeits like lusts?"  Well?  What else?  We then get more images: "a fire escape," less phallic more less commital -- hook-up-esque afterglow leaving feeling, "a fluid sky," openess, a lack of belonging somewhere, kind of like hook-up culture, "The endless ache of our minor works."  All these images makes me think of hooking up.  Quarantine does bring those memories back, but maybe I'm overanalyzing now.  In any case, there's a break up of images with the purpose of the image -- this Byronic Method, "I wanted to see / a distance through your eyes."

How do you see this separation?  This "distance" to be understood not by the speaker, but through the other's eyes, their perspective of this pairing of love and lust.  Both the speaker and the other know the distance (the lack of an image, together), but what does that mean.

The last line, "When I sexted you / telescope you sexted me the moon." has a melancholy love.  A telescope can represent the one searching and the telescope can represent the signified, what is sought and wanted, the moon.  There's a sense of irony with the last line of discovery looking back.  Note that the other only sent two images to the speaker, the squid in the beginning, and the moon at the end.  But also note how much effort the speaker puts into giving images: a five to two ratio.  This makes me think how this relates to why this poem is called the byronic method.  The byronic method: always be searching, placate the other through adaptable imagery for love and lust, receive concrete images in return to eventual escape to that fluid sky again.  A modern love story.