JRR's groundwork

The pride of Denethor was Sauron's tool
to broach the citadel so stoutly built.
The fall of Faramir was doubly cruel
increasing as it must, a father's guilt.
John Milton resonates through Tolkien's work
his highest praise is saved for humble Sam.
While no one--quite--calls Boromir a jerk
Galadriel--for one--accounts him damned.
His outcome's dicey 'til his final breath
defending Hobbits under Amon Hen.
Unworthy life, redeemed in noble death
A Catholic author's jaundiced view of Men.
Rejecting allegory out of hand,
he can't transcend the world he understands.

Byronic

Lord Byron hid his penchant for the lads
behind the pretty objects one expects.
To publicize those conquests would be mad,
when England criminalized even sex.
What fantasies Don Juan might entertain
while mingling sweet in someone else's bed,
in neither prose, not verse did he explain.
We're free to speculate, now he lies dead. 
The literary version of a man
elides complexity, as fiction must.
At best, it sketches out what verbiage can;
there's nuance lost, when simplifying lust.
Vain groupies, hoping each might be his bride
don't grasp he's batting for the other side.