Lord Byron: A Critical Review
.... According to Northrop Frye, this is the reason why Byron’s poetry is so appealing: “The main appeal of Byron’s poetry is in the fact that it is Byron’s.” Many believe that Byron indeed portrayed himself in most of his works. In fact, many have the popular misconception that Byron created Don Juan as an image of himself. However, the character is far from being as its creator – Byron created Don Juan as an image of what he wanted to be. This is proof of how Byron was not good in creating characters. Most of Byron’s critics, although praising his literature for it’s satirical and narrative value, agree on one of his faults: Byron never really was a poet, and wasn’t a master of the English language. On a critical essay, T.S. Elliot commented that Byron “added nothing to the language, that he discovered nothing in the sounds, and developed nothing in the meaning, of individual words.” Northrop Frye further states that, in Byron’s masterpiece, Don Juan, “There is hardly any characterization…even Don Juan never emerges clearly as a character.” When attempting to write poetry, Byron proved to be incapable and childish in thought. Nevertheless, one must not focus on these faults, for Byron must be taken in as a whole, and he has other attributes that compensate for his faults. Byron is most well known for the satire and mockery that characterizes his poetry. T.S. Elliot argued that Lord Byron was incredibly gifted in digression and in bantering. This, although not at all profound, gives the poems a humor and lightness that is enjoyable to the reader. As a matter of fact, he states that “Byron really is at his best when he is not trying too hard to be poetic…” In fact, when criticized for Don Juan’s constant anti-climaxes and “juxtaposit...