The Prisoner of Chillon (Selected Excerpts)
A lyric tale of endurance, “The Prisoner of Chillon” finds inner liberty shadowed by grief — the world as a wider cell.
Theme
19th century
22 poems
19th century
Prometheus
Byron’s “Prometheus” is a secular hymn to endurance — rebellion transfigured into human strengthening and proud dignity.
Stanzas to Augusta (Selected Excerpts)
A lyric of loyal solace, “Stanzas to Augusta” turns exile into principle and finds one witness against the world.
Fare Thee Well
A public farewell with private ache, “Fare Thee Well” turns repetition into injured grace during Byron’s marital collapse.
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (Canto III — Selected Excerpts)
Exile becomes self-fashioning in Byron’s Canto III, where Spenserian stanzas join spectacle to inward pilgrimage.
Don Juan (Canto I — Selected Excerpts)
In witty ottava rima, Byron’s “Don Juan” swaps epic heroics for satire — a comic anatomy of desire and hypocrisy.
Darkness
An apocalyptic lyric from 1816, “Darkness” imagines a sunless world — grandeur without comfort, entropy without appeal.
So, We’ll Go No More a Roving
A tender farewell to excess, Byron’s lyric accepts time’s limits so that love may last.
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d (Selected Excerpts)
Whitman’s Lincoln elegy braids lilac, star, and thrush into a ritual of grief and renewal in free verse.
I Hear America Singing
An anthem of labor and individuality, “I Hear America Singing” gathers many voices into one democratic chorus.