Lord Byron was a well known Romantic poet of the Second Generation. He led a controversial life and was extremely popular as well. His Romanticism was very different and deviated from the essence of real Romantic essence. He is famous for his famous epic “The Childe Harold’s pilgrimage”. He was a satire and wrote many satires till the end. Other famous works include “Don Juan” and “Manfred”. Byron is the most distinguished Romantic poet among the other Romantic Poets.
Byron as a Romantic poet was engaged with the materialism of life as well as the interior exploration of poet’s own feelings or subjectivity. He was materialistic in a way that he is geographical,social and political centered poet who transcends these materialism into his own poetic experiences. For instance, “The Child Harold’s Pilgrimage” is a travelogue and his personal experiences traveling around Europe through a fictional character Child Harold. He perceives the material from the society, geography and political aspects of Europe and translates it to his own poetical experiences. The realm of Europe is the sensuous place for Byron and a place of knowledge.
In addition to this, Byron’s writing is unconventional to the Wordsworthian and Coleridge aspects of spontaneity , philosophical musings of mind expressed directly through organic materialism or imagination. He combines the rational elements or wits along with the spirit of Romanticism to form a new work of Romantic art. He seems to go back to the Eighteenth century Neo-Classical writings where the poets emphasize on wits. “The Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” shows the pictorial framework of Childe Harold’s critique of Napoleonic war with the use of wits implying that the movement to defeat the political sovereignty is legible but ponders upon whether it has actually end all the political tyranny. He combines the witty aspects of dissimilar entity of admiring the defeat of sovereignty but also disapproving the impact that the war had upon the country which amalgamates to his own subjective attitude towards war.
However, Byron as a Romantic poet shrouds the classical essence in his writings. Byron goes back to the essence of past where the word “Pilgrimage” itself reflects the journey or the growth. The main concept of pilgrimage has been the idea of spiritual growth and knowledge which intrigues Chaucer “The Canterbury Tale’s” which gives the gallery of characters with ironic amusement. Hence, the “Pilgrimage” in the epic shows the philosophical knowledge of “To hear, to see,to feel and to possess” and its impact on the poet’s mind which is translated through a mediator. The mediator is the Childe Harold who transcends the poet’s subjective feelings into the work of art and hence the subjective material of the poet becomes objective in its representation and highlights the poetic desolation.
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Moreover, Byron was critical of his own contemporary age. He satirizes the impact of Napoleonic war which is bring forth through irony. He pays homage to Napoleon who fought for liberty and freedom but the the Battle of Waterloo seems to have a great impact on the society. Childe Harold seems to be disgusted with the ill effects of war and gives a rhetorical question whether “Earth is more free ?” from political authority. He brings forth irony where he questions whether all the nations together came and combat for one individual “submit”. It is in reference to Napoleon where he criticizes the political tyranny which the France has ended but he also gives a rhetorical question again whether Napoleon’s critical turn to end sovereignty is the “true sovereignty” as it still has a great impact on the society. It clearly shows Byron own attitude towards his disgust about the war.
Byron wrote many satires. “Don Juan” is a satire and he makes a mockery of the First generation Romantic poets. In the poem , he mocks William Wordsworth and called him as an “intellectual eunuch” and Robert Southey as an “Tory Turning”. He was a satire not only of the materialistic world but also of his contemporary. Hence, Byron was controversial in his writings and in his life and his writings clearly made him unconventional to the Romantic essence of writing but also towards his contemporaries. It is also satire in a way that Don Juan was strictly educated at his home to be “moral” but he mocks at the aristocratic rules of education where the strict restriction towards sexuality in him since childhood made him more curious and turns out to be viscous at his adult age and hence the education was fruitless.
Summary of Byron By the Rivers of Babylon We sat down and Wept
Lastly, Byron invented a Byronic hero. It has been debated that it could be the personality of Byron’s himself. Byronic heroes are passionate, mysterious, easily seduced by a woman , sadistic ,charming and others. “Don Juan” is a Byronic hero as he was “Tall handsome” and charming in his personality. “Don Juan” reflects the Byronic heroic essence of someone who combines both evil and good in their personalities which is reflected in the poem that when Juan and Julia had been intimated together occasionally but when his illicit love affairs was found Juan fled into the darkness or so called poetic desolation and hence he flees into the European countries and it seems that the country of Europe is the place of emotional attachment or a peace or sensuousness where Byron seems to emphasize upon.
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Lord Byron All for Love Summary
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