# LVI: Corcyra explained — Verses on Various Occasions

> Chapter companion for Verses on Various Occasions by John Henry Newman.

## What happens

The speaker reflects on the ancient city of Corcyra, contemplating the rise and fall of its seafaring, strife-ridden civilization. Gazing from beneath an olive tree, he meditates on the enduring singularity of each human spirit—whether in light or gloom—and resolves to carry a solemn reverence for the past, as if walking among the dead.

## Themes in this chapter

### Time and Memory

The speaker contemplates the passage of time and the enduring memory of a lost civilization, pondering whether its history is truly spent or if its spirits live on in singular form.

### Transience and Eternity

The contrast between the transient rise and decay of the city and the eternal, singular existence of each spirit is central to the poem's meditation.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who sits beneath the olive tree and reflects on the lost city and its people.

## Key lines

> I sat beneath an olive’s branches grey, And gazed upon the sight of a lost town, By sage and poet raised to long renown; Where dwelt a race that on the sea held sway, And, restless as its waters, forced a way For civil strife a hundred states to drown.

I sat under a grey olive tree and looked at the ruins of a famous city, celebrated by wise men and poets, whose people were masters of the sea and, as restless as the waves, spread civil war to destroy many states.

_The speaker describes the setting and the historical character of Corcyra's people._

> But is their being’s history spent and run, Whose spirits live in awful singleness, Each in its self-form’d sphere of light or gloom?

But is the story of their existence truly over, when their spirits still live in a terrifying individuality, each in its own self-made realm of light or darkness?

_The speaker questions whether the dead are truly gone, emphasizing the enduring singularity of each soul._

> Henceforth, while pondering the fierce deeds then done, Such reverence on me shall its seal impress As though I corpses saw, and walk’d the tomb.

From now on, when I think of the violent acts committed there, I will be marked with a reverence as if I were seeing corpses and walking through a tomb.

_The speaker resolves to carry a solemn, almost funereal respect for the past._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/verses_on_various_occasions_se/chapters/lvi-corcyra
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/verses_on_various_occasions_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/verses_on_various_occasions_se/chapters