“THE FREE BESIEGED” (also known by the titles “Missolonghi” and “Duty”) began to be written after the exodus of Missolonghi (1826). The so-called “First Draft,” referred to since Polyla’s time, has undeniably been conceived as a short lyrical poem in octosyllabic stanzas with an amphibrachic rhythm. The notion that this draft was specifically written to be included in “The Woman of Zakynthos” and should be published alongside it does not seem correct.

The “Free Besieged,” originally titled “Missolonghi” or “Poem of Duty,” were written after the Exodus of Missolonghi, which took place in April 1826. The work in the three forms in which it is preserved in the “Manuscripts” (Drafts A, B, C, according to Polyla's terminology) is essentially the same. The view that these are three different works is not convincing.

In Draft A, the “Free Besieged” took the form of a lyrical poem in octosyllabic stanzas; each one consists of two connected quatrains of hexasyllabic-pentasyllabic lines, with intertwined rhymes. There is an introductory stanza that begins with the well-known “At dawn I took / the path of the sun...”. We will see it in the section “Excerpts and Isolated Verses” of the “Free Besieged.”

The themes that were written during this phase include the lack of food and the exhaustion of the besieged (women and children and warriors), the faint trumpet call of Missolonghi and its powerful opponent, a reference to the ‘dogs’ that were eaten, some verses about the starry night of the Exodus and the ‘pearl’ of the enemies. Finally, an image from the conquered Missolonghi: an Arab (in May, therefore after the fall) passes by the grave of Markos Botsaris and lies down where Byron died.

[Excerpt from the text of the introduction of the edition]