The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-07-21
THE STANDING OF LORD BYRON
AS A GREAT BRITISH POET
An Appreciative Sketch of the Literary Career OF
the Great English Bard by DR..
kingsbury.

inc of Lord Byron as a poet, | purpose OF
fering a view | entertain that viii proba-
bly, strike some who have adopted the
critical deliverances of many writers as
decidedly absurd, antlquated and eXtraVa-
CANT. | began to read B~yron-When a lad
OF probably fourteen. / remember that
between my sixteenth and tWenty-fffth
year | was a constant reader, and an un
faltering admirer Of a poet that possessed
for me such exquisite, commanding
charm. | recall that / had a very init
mate friend at the University, older and
more advanced than l was, the late Judge
Victor Clay Barringer, of the Internatlon-
al Court of Alexandria,, Egypt, who used
to laugh at me because of my Byronlc
enthusiasm and intense love OF his, to me
then, incompatible poems. | remember
how absolutely fascinated / was with his
"Childe Harold" and The Bride OF
Abydos,' and '"The Corsair," and "The
Prisoner of Chillon" and Hebrew Melo-
dies" and Manfred" and Cain" ana
''Sardanapalus," and THE Dream" and
some others. | did not specially take to
Don Juan and "Werner' and The Two
Foscari". and others. AT about twenty
five | began to read more carefully
Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Cole
uSS OhclICJ IAcoto, dho iiCi /
grew to be neglected more or less, but 1
never changed my opinion Of his great
ness in the least, always placing HIM with
seven or eight greatest English poets OF
all t~ime-Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton,
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley,
Tennyson. 1t is not popular to say so, but
l behave the three greatest poets are
Shakespeare, Milton and Tennyson. Read
ing only Byron now and then, | at last
determined to read all he had written
again. 1t was a great pleasure for the
. most part that | received, and l rose
at some sixty-five years from the delight
full pursuit with a confirmed judgment OF
his great genius, and splendid, almos:
unequalled, elOquence.
I purpose to glance at this singularly
gifted English letter-writer and poet, and
to tell what he is; what there is in him
to justify such exalted estimate of his
gifts. l found perhaps a rather diminish
ed admiration of some of his poems
liked so much in my youth, and with a
higher estimate of others, | then failed to
appreciate properly. 4 believe Don
Juan to be his greatest work Of genius,
however Objectionable its immortal stairt
and vitiating influence. I would not
commend it to a youth as a fit poem to
read. 1t is Shiny and foul. But it is
Overlooking with interest, with unflag-
glng fascination, with sDendld daring,
with genuine .pathos, with wonderful hu-
NOR, with dash and fire and yet with mel
ancholy. The noble Scotch poet an1
romancist, inimitable and perennial Sir
Walter Scott, the Great, wrote Of its
wonderful power and ease, anC said "the
stanzas fall off as easily as the leaves
from the autumnal tree Like Chaucer
Spenser, Milton and other eminent poets,
George Gordon, Lo-I Byron, was born IN
London and on 22nd January, 1888. He was
the son Of Capt. John Byron, and grand
son of Admidl John Byron, who was a
brother Of William. fifth Lord Byron. The
poet wGs born with some deformity OF
cine foot, but it did not really amount to
something serious. He mad a slight limp
ir walking. He was much of an athlete
and loved games. He was a great swim
mer. He went to the then great public
school at Harrow, one of a half dozen. He
spent ~irregularly three years at Trinity
College, Cambridge University. He tool
his degree in 1908. He was ncnned tc
fairness in boyhood. At twenty he wa
a very handsome youth. When of age be
took his seat in the House of Lords. He
made one speech | read more than a hal
century since. 1t was bright, and witty
of a gifted youth no farther advanced. FL
was not, however, another Charles Jane!
Fox, the most precociously gifted you'll
in English history, as a debater, orato
and well read public man. Byron had
small income, great expectations" to u.s.
the name of one of Dickens's creates
novels, and much early Indebtedness from
borrowing. At twenty-one he is reporte,
to have owed $100, 000-a bad start 70
financial prosperity. He began authorshi,
in his teens, and was vigorously attacked
by critics. | shall refer farther on t.
his poems, and at some length. He mad
a tremendous impression before he ha,
passed his twenty first year when he Wis
tied Europe. He went in style, havinl
three servants, and was accompanied b,
his warm personal friend, John Can
Hobhouse, later Lord Broughtcn. VIII,
died in 1869. He wrote rapidly, began t.
publish many poems, and, soon awoke t.
find himself famous, as he said. In fact
he rapidly became the most popular poe
at one time that was ever born or live
Ill England. In fact, so greatly popula
was Byron that one of his pcrtlnaciou
and cock-sure detractors, Prof. Saints
Is certainly Matthew Arnold. He great
bury, admits that the only writer VIII
ever equalled him in contemporary popu
larlty was Scott, and only as a novelist
He also surpassed all others, admit
Saintsbury, abroad in contemporary az
probation save only Scott and Richardson
both novelists. His ungenerous critic say
that abroad he simply took possession 0
the Continent of Europe and kept it." H
captured Goethe, the greatest poet c
Germany, and he had great power owe
Heine, it's one towering genius, in tn
last century, placing Goethe in the eigl
teenth century Saintsbury admits furtl
er that Byron was almost the sole maste
OF Young Russia, young Italy, yOun
Spain, IN poetry How could a pretend
er, a fourth rate verse writer, a man {
interior gifts, do such great things? II
swept over Europe and the foremost me
of genius paid court to him., and offere
incense to his splendid genius. The leat
ing French writer's lauded and initiate
him. While England, and Great Britain
as a whole, have gone back upon him an
now deny him great or positive geniu
and his writings are neglected, spurne;
denounced dari1ad he is still apDraciot "