CULTURE AND MIGRATION

115 K. Papadopoulou Refugees and the Parthenon sculptures Mentor sank at once. No lives were lost, but some of the finest sculptures of the Parthenon were now at the bottom of the sea in twelve fathoms of salt water. 175 D. Second set of analogies: The time that the sculptures remain in England 1. The plights of refugees is likely to evoke sympathy in all but the hardest of hearts, so it’s no surprise that some of the finest poets writing in English – including, naturally, some of the most politically aware – have written poems about refugees. 176 Also the Parthenon sculptures inspired some beautiful English poems. When the Hellenic movement was campaigning for humanitarian intervention to free the Greeks, Lord Byron led the demands for poetic justice on Elgin, the Scottish “plunderer” of the de-marbled temple, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage reflects: 177 But most the modern Pict’s ignoble boast, To rive what Goth, and Turk, and Time hath spared: Cold as the crags upon his native coast, His mind as barren and his heart as hard, Is he whose head conceived, whose hand prepared Aught to displace Athena’s poor remains. 178 Many of the notes in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage relate to Lord Elgin 179 . 180 Another violent criticism came from the poem of Byron “The Curse of 175. W. St. Clair: Lord Elgin & The Marbles. Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 116. 176. Below, we’ ve picked six of the best poems about refugees, spanning over 400 years of literature in English. Perhaps unsurprisingly, on this list we will find several English poets whose parents were of a different nationality. William Shakespeare: from the play “Sir Thomas More”, Ford Madox Ford: “Antwerp”, Herber Read: “The Refugees”, W. H. Auden: “Refugee Blues”, Alun Lewis:“All Day it Has Rained”, Warsan Shire:“Home”. Interesting Literature. Available at: https://interestingliterature.com/2019/06/six-of-the- best-poems-about-refugees/ [30.01.2020]. 177. G. Robertson QC, Prof. N. Palmer QC, A. Clooney: “The Case for Return of the Parthenon Sculptures”. 31 July 2015, p. 37. 178. Byron: Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto II stanzas 12 & 13. Available at: http://knarf.english.upenn . edu/Byron/charold2.html?fbclid=IwAR2JUtXnx1vx6rTZBQ6mdhS4oMIHAzlBNGcdOUJTzHV BYWpSJhaVRfeTAe4 [30.01.2020]. 179. W. St. Clair: Lord Elgin & The Marbles. Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 187. 180. In writing to congratulate Byron on the publication of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Clarke told him the story of the damage caused to the Parthenon cornice when the first metope was taken down and of how the Disdar had wept when he saw it. Byron gratefully incorporated