Lord Byron's 'When We Two Parted'

 Many years ago, when I was a young man in my mid-20s, I attended an acting class. 

The acting students were required to perform two recitals of our choosing. 

I chose to perform Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, which was well-received. 

My second performance was a reading of Lord Byron’s When We Two Parted. 

My reading made some of the young girls in the class cry and the other students clapped. I was proud and happy. 

You can read the fine poem below:

Alas, my reading was not recorded, but you can listen to a reading of the poem via the below link:

When We Two Parted by Lord Byron (read by Ben W Smith) - YouTube

You can also read Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart via the below link:

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (poestories.com)

Years later, I would recite Byron's She Walks in Beauty to girls I was dating, including the last one, a beautiful woman I went on to marry.

You can read the poem below:

Note: The photo above is of a younger me attempting to strike a Byronic pose. 

Although I went on to become a writer rather than an actor, I've taken the stage many times as a public speaker.  

The acting class helped me become a better public speaker, as I used to perform safety, security, OPSEC, crime prevention, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism speeches, briefings and seminars for the military and civilian employees of the Defense Department command where I served as the administrative officer. 

And for 14 years I was a producer and on-air host of the radio program Inside Government, which aired on Sunday mornings on WMGK FM and WPEN AM in the Philadelphia area.

Since my retirement from the Defense Department, I’ve addressed corporate, government, church, student, civic, senior citizen, historical and veterans groups about crime prevention, security awareness and the history of crime and espionage. 

I've also had the sad duty of giving eulogies for departed loved ones.