By Lord Byron (1817)
The mind which is immortal makes itself
Requital for its good or evil thoughts —
Is its own origin of ill and end —
And its own place and time — its innate sense,
When stripp’d of this mortality, derives
No colour from the fleeting things without;
But is absorbed in sufferance or in joy,
Born from the knowledge of its own desert.
…
Old man! ’tis not so difficult to die.
…
The spirits I have raised abandon me —
The spells which I have studied baffle me —
The remedy I reck’d of tortured me;
I lean no more on superhuman aid —
It hath no power upon the past — and for
The future, until half of time is done,
I have outlived all things.
Originally published in Manfred (1817) by Lord Byron. Public domain.
Analysis
“Manfred” stages a metaphysical rebellion in alpine light. Byron fuses Romantic landscape with a mind that refuses both priest and demon, insisting that the will must answer for itself. The verse moves between incantation and aphorism, so that philosophy sounds like action — guilt becomes an atmosphere the hero breathes.
Unlike Faust, Manfred declines the bargain. He rejects salvation and damnation in equal measure, preferring responsibility without consolation. The drama’s starkest claim is ethical: no spell can alter the past, and self-knowledge does not heal but clarifies. Nature becomes witness rather than cure, the mountains an audience for a solitary courage.