[R. Nemo Hill]

I believe the humor in the poem lies in the realization that damned foot foot foot was most likely echoing in Byron's own head, that we are fashioned by our own insecurities, however politely repressed. The insistent rudeness of the poem is a burlesque antidote to the repression that causes said insecurities to bubble up in other less conscious and perhaps more harmfully distortive ways. Averted eyes are not honest seers. There is quite a difference between this poem and, say, some of the nasty diatribes written by his enemies about Pope's dwarfishness. This is cathartic for all involved, not mean-spirited at all. It seems to me a knowing but tender commentary on the Romantic in general, and how it compensates for life's unjust ill's.

Nemo