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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.