6 - The Stubborn Foe

Summary

A conspectus of contemporary negative judgments of Byron’s morals and poetry throws into relief the character of what Wilson Knight long ago called Byron’s poetry of action. Political and social issues are repeatedly drawn up as a struggle over language and the proper function of poetry in society. The first two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage stage a drama of Byron’s search for a poetic address to break the spells of linguistic decorum. Two events were pivotal: the experience of hearing wild Suliote ballads, and the example of Burns’s “unpublishable” and imperishable erotic verse. The book’s account of these matters closes with a reflection on the Hebrew Melodies, where “stubborn Israel’s” histories of alienation and betrayal point to the poète maudit – and Byron – as the age’s exemplary cultural hero.