Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lo! where the Giant on the mountain stands,
His blood-red tresses deep'ning in the sun,
With death-shot glowing in his fiery hands,
And eye that scorcheth all it glares upon;
Restless it rolls, now fixed, and now anon
Flashing a far,—and at his iron feet
Destruction cowers to mark what deeds are done.
For on this morn three potent nations meet,
To shed before his shrine the blood he deems most sweet.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is a lengthy narrative poem written by the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron when at Kinsham. It was published between 1812 and 1818 and is dedicated to "Ianthe", the term of endearment he used for Charlotte Harley, Francis Bacon's great-great-grandmother.[1]The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands; in a wider sense, it is an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. The title comes from the term childe, a medieval title for a young man who was a candidate for knighthood.
The poem contains elements thought to be autobiographical, as Byron generated some of the storyline from experience gained during his travels through the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea between 1809 and 1811[2]. Despite Byron's personal distastes for the poem [3], which he felt revealed too much of himself, it was well-received by critic John Murray and brought him a large amount of public attention. Byron stated that he woke up one day and "found myself famous."[4].
The work provided the first example of the Byronic hero The idea of the Byronic hero is one that consists of many different characteristics. The hero must have a rather high level of intelligence and perception as well as be able to easily adapt to new situations and use cunning to his own gain. It is clear from this description that this hero is well educated and by extension is rather sophisticated in his style. Aside from the obvious charm and attractiveness that this automatically creates, he struggles with his integrity, being prone to mood swings or bi-polar tendencies. Generally, the hero has a disrespect for any figure of authority, thus creating the image of the Byronic Hero as an exile or an outcast. The Hero also has a tendency to be arrogant and cynical, indulging in self-destructive behaviour which leads to the need to seduce women. Although his sexual attraction through being mysterious is rather helpful, this sexual attraction often gets the hero into trouble. The character of the Byronic Hero has appeared in novels, films and plays ever since.
The poem has four cantos written in Spenserian stanzas, which consists of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by one alexandrine (a twelve syllable iambic line), and has rhyme pattern ABABBCBCC.
Childe Harold became a vehicle for Byron's own beliefs and ideas; indeed in the preface to book three Byron acknowledges the fact that his hero is just an extension of himself. According to Jerome McGann, by masking himself behind a literary artifice, Byron was able to express his view that "man's greatest tragedy is that he can conceive of a perfection which he cannot attain".[5]
[edit] References
- ^ [Peppiatt, Michael (1996) Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0297816160]
- ^ James A. W. Heffernan. Cultivating Picturacy. Baylor U P.p.163
- ^ MacCarthy, Fiona: Byron: Life and Legend, page 139. John Murray, 2002 ISBN 071955621X.
- ^ Barbara Spengler-Axiopoulos, Der skeptische Kosmopolit, NZZ v. 01.07.2006 [1]
- ^ McGann, ed, Byron: The Complete Poetical Works, ed. with Introduction, Apparatus, and Commentaries. 7 Vols. Clarendon Press, The Oxford English Texts series, 1980-1993
[edit] External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage |
- Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Full Text
- Full Text at gutenberg: [2]
- http://arts.guardian.co.uk/portrait/story/0,,740258,00.html
