Moran is a secondary school teacher of English and American literature. In this essay, he examines the ways in which Byron's poem presents its subject as aesthetically perfect and as a reminder of Byron's own lost innocence.

In Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, Mr. Bernstein, a one-time associate of the enigmatic title character, is interviewed by Thompson, the reporter whose quest for the meaning of Kane's final word ("Rosebud") propels the film. Bernstein suggests to Thompson that perhaps "Rosebud" refers to "some girl" from Kane's "early days," only to be told by Thompson that "'it's hardly likely . . . that Mr. Kane could have met some girl casually and then, fifty years later, on his deathbed,'" recall her during his last moments on earth. Bernstein, however, offers an example from his own life to suggest the power of a moment spent in the presence of a certain type of...