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Thus Romanticism is the historical period of literature in which modern readers most begin to
see a reflection of themselves and their own modern conflicts and desires.
The Romantic period has passed, but its stylesand values still thrive today in popular forms
and familiar attitudes, e.g.:
feelings, emotions, and imaginationtake priority over logic and facts ("Anything you wantyou can have if you only want it enough." cf. romance narrative
belief in children's innocence and wisdom! youth as a golden age! adulthood as corruption
and betrayal
nature as beauty and truth,esp. the sense of nature as the sublime(godlike awesomeness
mi#ing ecstatic pleasure mi#ed with pain, beauty mi#ed with terror
heroic individualism! the individual separate from the masses
"outsiders"as representatives of special worth e#cluded by rigid societies or irrational norms
nostalgiafor the past
desireor will as personal motivation
intensification, e#cess, and e#tremes (see Romantic rhetoric
common people ideali$ed as dependable source of true common sense and sentiment
ideali$ed or abstract settings! characters as symbolictypes
the gothicas nightmare world of intense emotions and comple# psychology
Any of these %ualities may be associated with Romanticism, but none of them defines or limits
Romanticism absolutely. &ome of them even contradict each other.
Think of Romanticism as an "umbrella term" under which many stylistic themes and values
meet and interact! e.g. the gothic, thesublime, the sentimental, love of nature,
the romancenarrative. ('ost popular films today are romance narratives with simple Romantic
characters (dashing young heroes, sweet but independent damsels, ugly corporate or statevillains operating by codes of chivalry andhonor.
Lord Byron's Poems SummaryThe poetry of Lord Byronis varied, but it tends to address a few majorthemes. Byron looked upon love as free but unattainable in the ideal, an ideaspringing from his own multitude of aairs and ultimate lack of happiness inany of them. His characters and themes are highly autobiographical mostevery poem by Byron !nds as its inspiration some real person or place Byronhad encountered. "nd although Bryon was a #omantic poet, much of his
poetry follows traditional forms.$%he &alks in Beauty' was written by Byron about (rs. &ilmot, his cousin#obert &ilmot)s wife. *t develops the conceit of a speaker)s awe upon seeinga woman walking in her own aura of beauty. "mong Byron)s most famousverse, it is a surprisingly chaste poem from so debaucherous an author.
$&hen &e Two +arted' --/0 conveys the author)s sorrow at the loss of hisbeloved. (any scholars believe Byron falsely attributed its writing to -1 in
http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/S/Style.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/R/romance.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/S/sublime.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/N/Nostalgia.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/N/Nostalgia.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/D/DesireLoss.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/D/DesireLoss.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/R/RomantRhet.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/S/symbol.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/G/gothic.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/G/gothic.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/S/sublime.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/S/sublime.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/S/sentiment.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/R/romance.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/R/romance.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/H/honor.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/H/honor.htmhttp://www.gradesaver.com/author/lord-byronhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/R/romance.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/S/sublime.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/N/Nostalgia.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/D/DesireLoss.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/R/RomantRhet.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/S/symbol.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/G/gothic.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/G/gothic.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/S/sublime.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/S/sentiment.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/R/romance.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/R/romance.htmhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/H/honor.htmhttp://www.gradesaver.com/author/lord-byronhttp://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/S/Style.htm -
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order to protect the identity of its subject, Lady 2rances &edderburn &ebster,who was linked to the 3uke of &ellington in a scandalous relationship. Thepoem is highly autobiographical in that it recounts Byron)s emotional statefollowing the end of his secret aair with Lady 2rances and his frustration ather unfaithfulness to him with the 3uke.
ord )yron*s +oems Themes
The power of Nature
To Byron, 4ature was a powerful complement to human emotion and
civili5ation. 6nlike &ordsworth, who ideali5ed 4ature and essentially dei!ed
it, Byron saw 4ature more as a companion to humanity. 7ertainly, natural
beauty was often preferable to human evil and the problems attendant upon
civili5ation, but Byron also recogni5ed 4ature)s dangerous and harshelements. $The +risoner of 7hillon' connects 4ature to freedom, while at the
same time showing 4ature)s potentially deadly aspects in the harsh waves
that seem to threaten to 8ood the dungeon. Childe Harolds Pilgrimagelooks
to 4ature as a refuge from human con8ict, but sees there, amid the
avalanches and volcanoes, the seething fury of the natural world.
The folly of "love"
Throughout his life, Byron sought the perfect object of his aections, whichparado9ically made him a !ckle and unstable lover to many women and
men0. His poetry re8ects this tension, although usually with the weight being
on the side of capricious love. He ideali5es women he knows in his opening
stan5as to the !rst three cantos of Childe Harolds Pilgrimage, turning them
into muses who inspire their respective narratives. However, the fact that
each canto has a dierent woman as its muse points to in!delity on the part
of Byron)s creative genius. $%he &alks in Beauty,' perhaps his most famous
poem dedicated to an individual woman, e9tols the virtues of a woman with
whom Byron was never romantically involved. This theme recurs throughout
Byron)s poetry: the ideal love is that which is unattainable. 2inally, in Don
JuanByron mocks the ideal of love even as his hapless protagonist falls into
various women)s beds.
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The enduring power of art
ven as he bewailed the loss of classical culture through the despoiling of -reek
ruins, )yron saw permanence in the art created by these cultures and by his own
contemporaries. n the fourth canto of Childe Harolds Pilgrimage, )yron notesthat even the greatest civili$ations decline, yet their art and literature remain. /e also
contrasted the destructive power of oppressive nations (such as 0apoleon1s 2rance
with the creative power of the artist to bring into being that which had not, until that
point, e#isted. n keeping with this theme, )yron used his poetry to demonstrate the
ephemeral nature of human civili$ation while creating works of art that would survive
long after any empire of his own day.