The speaker—who is in this case irrefutably intended to be the voice of the poet himself, Lord Byron, who actually did accomplish the notable feat of swimming her described—commences by referencing the ancient mythical love story of Hero and Leander. The poet reminds the reader that even on cold December nights Leander would swim across the Hellespont—the body of water separating Europe and from Asia and today known as the Dardanelles—to reach his love Hero who guided him from the other side with a lantern. The parenthetically suggests that this story is less likely to be forgotten by women who have found it one of the more romantic myths of all time.
Byron belonged to that movement or grouping of poets known as the Romantics, but he was surely the most iconoclastic of them and here he muses upon the effort Leander and Hero put into getting together and ultimately admits that doing undertaking such an effort really only inspires two things: pity and the desire to replicate the feat.
Somewhat humorously self-deprecating, Byron admits that unlike the mythic swimmer, he won’t be braving the cold December waters, but will rather wait until a more genial time of the year like May. He also references his clubfoot with the description of himself as a degenerate wretch. That very description helps him to come out of the water not just dripping with water, but dripping with pride. For a person hampered with such a physical deformity, the wretch accomplished quite a feat he is not too modest to admit.
Having come through the ordeal successfully, Byron now casts some doubt on the validity of the story at hand: most specifically, that Leander could be driven to make that swim night solely for love and nothing else. In a most non-Romantic admission, Byron confesses he did not do it for love, but only for glory.
The humor has been continually building and reaches its climax in the final stanza when Byron compares his accomplishment with that Leander; comparing attempting the feat for love versus attempting it for glory. Ultimately, he must admit that he came fared better since Leander eventually wound up losing his life during the attempt one night when Hero’s light went out whereas all he himself suffered as a result of his pains was coming down with a serious case of the chill and shivers.
