Don+Juan+and+Romanticism

=Byron's //Don Juan// and Romanticism =

By contrasting the characteristics of Augustan and Romanticism poetry, it becomes possible to better understand the major poetry of these adjacent movements. Such is the case with Lord Byron's poem //Don Juan//. Begun in 1818, //Don Juan's// 17 cantos remained unfinished by Byron's death in 1824. Unlike the legendary Don Juan, known for his philandering, Byron's //Don Juan// is about a man who is seduced by women.

While it is clear from his other works and the time during which he was active that Byron was a Romantic, //Don Juan// contains elements from the previous literary period. The narrative form of //Don Juan// as a variation on the epic form, or mock-epic, reminds us of Augustan works, such as Alexander Pope's //The Rape of the Lock.// Not only are the events and characters of the poem infused with satire and humor reminiscent of Augustan Age, but Byron also praises Augustan poets and downplays noteworthy poets of the Romanticism. For example, he writes, "Thou shalt believe in Milton, Dryden, Pope;/Thou shalt not set up Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey;/Because the first is crazed beyond all hope,/The second drunk, the third so quaint and mouthy:" (ll.1633-1636). The criticism of other rival writers, as seen here, was a common trope of the Augustan period. //Don Juan// should be viewed as a statement of Byron's perspective on the state of Romantic poetry as well as a piece that combines Augustan and Romantic characteristics.

For more information on the Augustan Age and Romanticism, click here.

Presented below are excerpts from //Don Juan// that contain Augustan characteristics, such as satire, irony, comedy, and empiricism (the theory that true knowledge come through the senses rather than reason). The poem satirically mirrors Augustan ideals while also representing Romanticism with the emphasis on the role of the poet, ordinary subjects, and the prominence of emotion.

**Satire and Irony**  **Canto 12, 29** In one point only were you settled -- and You had reason; 't was that a young child of grace, As beautiful as her own native land, And far away, the last bud of her race, Howe'er our friend Don Juan might command Himself for five, four, three, or two years' space, Would be much better taught beneath the eye Of peeresses whose follies had run dry.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Canto 12, 70** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Though travell'd, I have never had the luck to <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Trace up those shuffling negroes, Nile or Niger, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">To that impracticable place, Timbuctoo, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Where Geography finds no one to oblige her <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">With such a chart as may be safely stuck to -- <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">For Europe ploughs in Afric like "//bos piger//:" <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">But if I //had been// at Timbuctoo, there <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">No doubt I should be told that black is fair.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Canto 8, 70** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Koutousow, he who afterward beat back <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">(With some assistance from the frost and snow) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Napoleon on his bold and bloody track, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">It happen'd was himself beat back just now; <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">He was a jolly fellow, and could crack <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">His jest alike in face of friend or foe, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Though life, and death, and victory were at stake; <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">But here it seem'd his jokes had ceased to take:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Comedy**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Canto 15, 8** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">O Death! thou dunnest of all duns! thou daily <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Knockest at doors, at first with modest tap, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Like a meek tradesman when, approaching palely, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Some splendid debtor he would take by sap: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">But oft denied, as patience 'gins to fail, he <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Advances with exasperated rap, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And (if let in) insists, in terms unhandsome, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">On ready money, or "a draft on Ransom."

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Canto 15, 12** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">His manner was perhaps the more seductive, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Because he ne'er seem'd anxious to seduce; <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Nothing affected, studied, or constructive <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Of coxcombry or conquest: no abuse <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Of his attractions marr'd the fair perspective, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">To indicate a Cupidon broke loose, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And seem to say, "Resist us if you can" -- <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Which makes a dandy while it spoils a man.


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Empiricism **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Canto 15, 87 and 88** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Also observe, that, like the great <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Lord Coke (See Littleton), whene'er I have express'd <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Opinions two, which at first sight may look <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Twin opposites, the second is the best. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Perhaps I have a third, too, in a nook, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Or none at all -- which seems a sorry jest: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">But if a writer should be quite consistent, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">How could he possibly show things existent?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">If people contradict themselves, can I <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Help contradicting them, and every body, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Even my veracious self? -- <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">But that's a lie: I never did so, never will -- how should I? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">He who doubts all things nothing can deny: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Truth's fountains may be clear -- her streams are muddy, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And cut through such canals of contradiction, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">That she must often navigate o'er fiction.


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">References **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Diakonova, Nina. Byron's Prose and Byron's Poetry. Rice University, 1976.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Don Juan. []

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"Lord Byron, 1814." []

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