Poetic Art in "Don Juan"

Poem Review # 128617

English > Analysis
Literature > Poetry

An examination of Lord Byron's epic "Don Juan" in the context of the life and aims of the poet.

2,014 words () | 3 sources | MLA | 2009 | Bangladesh

Published on: Jul 29, 2010

Paper Summary:

This paper aims to highlight Byron's poetic art through a careful examination of selected stanza's from "Don Juan". It first puts the case that Byron's persona as a dandy and celebrity tends to distract from his artistry. It goes on to propose that his purpose is far from trivial, and that he is indeed standing against the materialistic and rationalist ethos of his age. His immediate purpose in Don Juan is to free poetry from the shackles of Romanticism, and he believed the latter to be a particular manifestation of rationalism. The paper goes on to analyze "Don Juan" to show how the poet inspires freedom both through form and content. It discusses the use of the ottava rima rhyming scheme, and also the subtle attacks against the Lake poets. It also points out that Byron compares his scope to that of Newton, and therefore he is hinting at a revolution in poetry that overcomes the shackles of the past.

From the Paper:

" The poetic art of Lord Byron has long been a neglected area, and only in the latter half of the twentieth century has there appeared a burgeoning appreciation. The art itself has long been overshadowed by the personality, a state of affairs that has persisted since the days of the poet himself. Byron deliberately strove for fame, both through his works and by conducting himself audaciously in public. It can be said that he was meticulous in cultivating his public persona to best match the tenor of his work. So successful is he in this regard that he is widely considered to be the first example of the modern phenomenon of celebrity. But this success has also been to the detriment of a proper appreciation of his poetic art. Byron has long been seen as a mere dandy, and even in scholarly circles his poetry is studied for its surface fireworks alone, and was deemed to contain little substance. But the latter day reassessment is beginning to reveal a unique brilliance of poetic art. No more so than in his sprawling satirical epic Don Juan."

Sample of Sources Used:

Boyd, Elizabeth French. Byron's Don Juan: A Critical Study. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1945.
Byron, George Gordon. Don Juan. Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008.
Rutherford, Andrew. Byron, a Critical Study: A Critical Study. Edinburgh, UK: Oliver and Boyd, 1961.