LORD BYRON'S RIDDLE.
Reading edition
A Curious Poetic Creation That Has Puzzled Many Readers, and a Solution of the Mystery.
In the earlier history of man the riddle was an important intellectual test. To be able to guess hard riddles was supposed to indicate wisdom, and often a great deal was made to depend upon the issue of a guessing contest. The most famous riddle of antiquity was the one which the Sphinx is said to have proposed to Oedipus: "What is that which has four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three at night?" And it has been asserted that Homer died of vexation because he could not find an answer to the riddle: "What we caught we threw away, what we could not catch we kept."
The riddle is the result of the perception of analogies. Note your analogy and put it in the form of a question, and you have your riddle. The conundrum, which has largely replaced the riddle, is a pun concerning which a question is asked. The conundrum may be witty; the riddle may be broadly humorous—and, indeed, it is probably the earliest form of humor.
Among modern riddles, this of Lord Byron's once puzzled many people. The appended "solution" appeared years ago in the Essex (Massachusetts) Register.
THE RIDDLE.
I'm not in youth, nor in manhood, nor age, But in infancy ever am known; I'm a stranger alike to the fool and the sage, And though I'm distinguished in history's page, I always am greatest alone. I'm not in the earth, nor the sun, nor the moon, You may search all the sky—I'm not there; In the morning and evening—tho' not in the noon, You may plainly perceive me, for like a balloon, I am midway suspended in air. I am always in riches and yet I am told, Wealth did ne'er my presence desire; I dwell with the miser, but not with his gold, And sometimes I stand in the chimney so cold, Though I serve as a part of the fire. I often am met in political life— In my absence no kingdom can be; And they say there can neither be friendship nor strife, No one can live single, no one take a wife, Without interfering with me. My brethren are many, and of my whole race, No one is more slender and tall; And though not the eldest, I hold the first place, And even in dishonor, despair, and disgrace, I boldly appear 'mong them all. Though disease may possess me, and sickness and pain, I am never in sorrow or gloom; Though in wit and wisdom I equally reign, I'm the heart of sin, and have long lived in vain, And I ne'er shall be found in the tomb!
SOLUTION.
From the Essex (Massachusetts) "Register."
Lord Byron, your riddle is dark, I confess, But dark as it is, I will venture to guess. Though 'tis found not in youth, nor in manhood, nor age, Though a stranger alike to the fool and the sage, Though earth don't contain it, the sun nor the moon. Though in darkness 'tis absent, and also in noon; Though 'tis not found in searching the heavens sublime; Yet by guessing, I think I shall guess it in time. If disease must possess it, and sickness and pain, If suspended in air and has long lived in vain, If in sin you can find it, I will not deny, As you are freed from it, it must then be I.