The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-08-04
DIR. KINGSBURY'S CONCLUDING
PAPER ON THE POET BYRON
Poets Literary Judgment at Fault. How the Bryonic
Craze Swept England and ALI Europe. His
Early Death in Greece.

at ldOlI. lie pIdl>tu 1Opt dDOFt III ENG
lish poets, and today his rank is not
with the second order-he does not rank
with even Dryden, much less with Words
worth, Byron himself, Shelley, Keats or
Tennyson. Byron spurned the poetry OF
his contemporaries as we'll as that Of
other times. He was a sceptic, ridiculed
revealed religion, lived an immoral life,
debauched life, drank excessively. and died
at .thirty-six. He laughed at public opln-
ion, scoffed at the reviews, condemned the
writer's for the press, and still was
p~crvious all over, and allowed manlkln
arrows, which were beneath his laughter.
to arouse his rage" (Gllfillan). He
writes strikingly, w regard Byron Meth
ed as III any sense, d creator, nor wholly,
as a creature of his period; but rather as
a stranger entangled in the passing stream
of its crowd, imperfectly adjusted to It's
customs, indifferently reconciled to its
laws-among men but not of them-a man
Of the world, but not a man OF the age;
and who has rather fallen turlOuSly
through it-spurning its heights, and seek
ing its depths-than left on it any deep or
definite impression This was written be-
fore 1850. Mr. Gilfillan writes Of the in
fluence which Scotch scenery had upon
him, and how Lochnagar had seized upon
him. The description Is fine on the part
OF the critic, but l have not room for It's
reproduction. He says that The loves the
cloud and the thick darkness.' He re-
marks that mo poet since Homer and
Ida has thus, everlastingly shot his genus
into the heart of one great mountain,
identifying himself and his song with it."
tina other poets have their mountains,
but "Lochnagar Is Byron's VINO poet
will ever venture to sing it again. He
was so greatly moved, impressed, aWed,
that he referred to it now and then, and
"hence the severe Dante-like monument
al, Dante-like, mountainous cast OF his
better poetry
Byron's first venture in publishing verse
was disastrous. He called it Hours OF
Idleness,'' composed of fugitive, boyish
verse. He was nineteen, and the little
volume was despised or neglected. 1t
gave no promise. He was severely critl-
cized by the Edinburgh Review. This
stirred the youthful rhymester, and he
printed after awhile his bitter, reviling
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers"
1t was very stormy and coarse and sweep
ing. It has genuine power IN parts no
doubt. 1t gave a clear manifestation Of
the vigor, lucidity, intense passion that
distinguished SO many, perhaps all, of his
subsequent and the most matured OF his
poetic writings.
Byron went to Europe, travelled for two
years, returned and published the first
two cantos of 'Childe Harold" They were
widely read and much praised. 1t won
him the first place among contemporaries,
and yet it is now seen that the praise was
excessive, although the effort gave high
promise. and was decidedly brilliant in
,ortc II iS not tOo much to clam tor 1t
that there are IN it beauty, pathos, eleva-
ton Of sentiment, oven sublimlty OF de-
scription. Then, in rapid succession fol-
lowed THE GiaOur" and The Bride of
Abydos," The Corsair' and Lara"
They increased the enthusiasm in England,
and the Byron craze began 1t swept Eng
land. crossed to the continent Of Europe
and made captlves of the authors and men
OF genius of many lands. Prof. Shaw says
of him: Most OF the narrative poems
were written in the Irregular rhymed me-
tres, which Scott had brought lnto fash
ion. They have rarely any pretentlons
to ingenuity of plot or connected develop
ment of incident and are indeed, little
else thar powerful embodiments of terrible
MISUNDERSTANDING lnstants-ln
Oriental existence. They are not, IL short,
dramas, nor hardly scenes, OF the life OF
men; they are moments of intense and
dramatic passion" IS all writers upon
Byron have noted, the various characters
who figure are not so many men OF dit
ferent mould and pecularitIes and person
alities as they are really all one and the
same-the male in all being the same IN
all, and many say it was Byron himself
that he painted. Byron was indeed a very
intense man. and his characters are filled
with the very intensity of passion. He
Dublcho6 two mems called ''The Siege OF
Corinth" and "Parisina," both irregular
IN structure and short, but brilliant and
very spirited. He then went abroad, and
some six months later had completed the
third canto of "Childe Harold and The
Prisoner of Chillon.' The former is ex,
ceedingly fine. He utilities his travels IN
a mastery way in Greece, Italy, etc. The
first two cantos were extremely popular,
but are far below the third and fourth in
genius and splendor They are tlnged
with d deep sorrow, but are far more
viriIe and rich than the first and second
cantos. Gilfllan notes that the public
ceased to read and admire the greater
productions that We're so permeated with
IRE, and were so rich in high poetic ar
dor and beauty. He writes: 'Thcse who
shouted applause when he issued the first
two elegant, but comparatively shallow
cantos of 'Childe Harold,' which were
the reflection Of other minds. shrank from
him when be displayed the terrible riches
OF his own" The Scotchman writes er-
roneously two first" an impcssibilit,
There can nd7er be two frsts." 1 find
he does not think we'll of Tho Bride of
Abydos," saying of it that it lis a tender
and somewhat maudlin memory of Greece
The number of Eastern, and particularly
Greek poems, he published, were generally
written in the metres of Scott as men
toned. They are strictly Oriental, and
without regular plots, but full of passion
and incident, and with no little of fine
scenery, pathetic appeals, and directnes;
of thought. The male character III
"Childe Harold in Conrad" in Lara
in the tragedies, is Byronic in personality
as well as IN the tremendous passion and
splendor of style. Prof. Shaw remark,
with his usual penetration and felicity O
style, that 'it is singular how almost al
Byron's characters resolve themselves int:
moments and situations of intense bu.