Byron and the orient

146 Pages·2013·6.33 MB·English

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BYRON AND THE ORIENT
BY
>
JOHN WEBB IRWIN
A. B. Wabash College, 1909
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
IN ENGLISH
IN
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
IQIO
mo
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9
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
May 12 i*0
HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY
1
JOHN WEBB IRWIN
entitled Byron and The Orient
BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
degree of Master of Arts
In Charge of Major Work
f ' Head of Department
Recommendation concurred in:
Committee
on
Final Examination
167543

10
a
BYROM AND THE ORIENT
* .
Introductory Remarks.
In regard to Lord Byron it is difficult to make positive asser-
tions. In life, in religion, in literature he is somewhat of a paradox,
,
He was fiercely proud of his aristocratic descent ;he was also an
j
exponent of universal equality. He wrote odes to Napoleon ;he died in
Greece for the cause of liberty. He has been called a deist,an athe-
ii8t,and a Christian;in Manfred he exclaims, "A mind which is immortalj
makes itself requital." He eiilogized Newstead Abbey one day;the next
i,
he desecrated it with bacchanalian revelry. He had few traits of
i
character that were not entirely reversible.
To the student of literature Byron is somewhat of an enigma. In
his earlier poetry we find translations and imitations from Tibullus,
I
Catullus Horace and Anacreon, interspersed with addresses to young
, ,
ladies and imitations of Ossian. In a distinctly romantic age we fine!
him writing a typical Augustan satire. In the midst of scenes that
almost unconsciously produced Childe Harold we find him engrossed
,
witb Hints From Horace Throughout his entire life he upheld classic-j
.
al ideals,was an admirer and defender of Popejfrom his birth to his
death, in his life and in his poetry,he was distinctly the antithesis
I
of the eighteenth century man and poet. Walter Scott's romantic
tendencies found inspiration in the past :Byron, on the contrary, lived