Byron's Lyric Poetry

Shears, Jonathon

Abstract

This chapter proposes that Byron’s lyrics are best understood not as part of the tradition of the imaginative, introspective Romantic lyric, but as an exploration of human relations revealed through close attention to subtle shifts in voice, tone, and mood. It argues that however solipsistic Byron’s lyric speakers become, his lyrics usually have a centrifugal momentum addressed outwards to life’s material and social circumstances. It suggests that one of the key traditions in which Byron worked as a lyricist was the amour courtois or amatory mode, and that the powerful effects of his lyrics develop from and eventually outstrip the dramatic social relations found in courtly Renaissance lyricists. Byron’s concerns with power relations and shifting subject positions emerge in many minor lyrics and more extensively in celebrated lyrics such as ‘So We’ll Go No More a Roving’, ‘Epistle to Augusta’, and ‘To the Po’. The chapter identifies the latter as the crowning achievement of Byron’s social lyricism.

Citation

Shears, J. (2024). Byron's Lyric Poetry. In The Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron (48-63). Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198808800.013.39

• Online Publication Date: Oct 22, 2024
• Publication Date: Oct 17, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 15, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Pages: 48-63
• Book Title: The Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron
• Chapter Number: 4
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198808800.013.39
• Keywords: Lord Byron, lyrics, poetics, voice, courtly love, sociability, status, separation, ‘Epistle to Augusta’, ‘To the Po’
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/951204
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/58801/chapter-abstract/489167186?redirectedFrom=fulltext