Many thanks, Rick, Cally, and Martin.
Cally, that's a very flattering comparison! After I read it, I went and put on
Leonard Cohen's sung version of it, which is how I first came across Byron's poem (I have a shocking lack of literary education!). Curiously enough, I had a Cohen tune in my head when I wrote this poem, his
Take this Waltz (which is his translation of Lorca's
Little Viennese Waltz).
-Matt