Byron's doubts: a critical study of Byron's poetry, 1807-24
<p>This thesis offers a literary and critical reading of Byron’s poetry, and a study of his doubts about whether he should have written poetry at all. Despite the energy and variousness of his career as a poet, Byron was often openly irreverent about his art, claiming to have ‘no great esteem...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| _version_ | 1797111626607886336 |
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| author | Watson, EM |
| author2 | Stafford, F |
| author_facet | Stafford, F Watson, EM |
| author_sort | Watson, EM |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This thesis offers a literary and critical reading of Byron’s poetry, and a study of his doubts about whether he should have written poetry at all. Despite the energy and variousness of his career as a poet, Byron was often openly irreverent about his art, claiming to have ‘no great esteem for poetical persons’. It is the claim of this thesis that behind that habit of disparagement lay more serious unresolved uncertainties about the value and purpose of poetry. Although Byron’s scepticism is readily acknowledged, extraordinarily little attention has been paid to the quality of his doubt and how it might have affected his creative practice. Yet as this study shows, his doubts were vitally related to his artistry as a poet.</p>
<p>While we might usually think of doubt as a negative or critical force, likely to perplex or erode creativity, this thesis argues that it profoundly shaped Byron’s creative intelligence and had significant implications for his formal and stylistic choices. My introductory chapter introduces the perspectives of poets and critics who have felt that Byron ‘wanted faith’ in poetry. The chapters that follow aim to trace the most significant creative consequences of that want of conviction. Chapter 1 introduces Byron’s doubting temper and examines his early preference for self-reflexive literary forms, including literary satire, that might give expression to his early inclination to be in two minds about literature. Byron’s revisions and self-revisions are the subject of Chapter 2, which considers the compositional development of <i>Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage</i> in light of the creatively resourceful scepticism involved in literary revision; it argues that his doubts were vitally related to the restless experimentation that defined his career as a poet. Chapter 3 turns to Beppo, Don Juan, and the activity of entertaining doubt in light verse, offering a close stylistic analysis of Byron’s comic rhymes to show how his distrust of more serious forms of art was profitably realised as a matter of style.</p>
<p>Over the course of his career, Byron’s scepticism of the ordinary preoccupations of poetry led him into a creative effort to expand what the medium could do. These experiments are the subject of Chapter 4. In the later cantos of the poem, Byron cultivated a style that was in some ways consciously unliterary, reflecting his openness to the influence of discursive and ambivalently literary forms including the essay. Chapter 5 turns to the English cantos of Don Juan, which Byron claimed to have scribbled in improvisatory style. It describes a poetry that makes an art of not being poetical—and raises questions about its relation to prose. Together these chapters are designed to show that Byron’s irresolved doubts had a profound and affirmative influence on his art.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:13:06Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:bc494fa6-1024-4a15-b8eb-9d990b3acb49 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:13:06Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:bc494fa6-1024-4a15-b8eb-9d990b3acb492023-12-04T08:46:43ZByron's doubts: a critical study of Byron's poetry, 1807-24Thesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:bc494fa6-1024-4a15-b8eb-9d990b3acb49EnglishHyrax Deposit2023Watson, EMStafford, F<p>This thesis offers a literary and critical reading of Byron’s poetry, and a study of his doubts about whether he should have written poetry at all. Despite the energy and variousness of his career as a poet, Byron was often openly irreverent about his art, claiming to have ‘no great esteem for poetical persons’. It is the claim of this thesis that behind that habit of disparagement lay more serious unresolved uncertainties about the value and purpose of poetry. Although Byron’s scepticism is readily acknowledged, extraordinarily little attention has been paid to the quality of his doubt and how it might have affected his creative practice. Yet as this study shows, his doubts were vitally related to his artistry as a poet.</p> <p>While we might usually think of doubt as a negative or critical force, likely to perplex or erode creativity, this thesis argues that it profoundly shaped Byron’s creative intelligence and had significant implications for his formal and stylistic choices. My introductory chapter introduces the perspectives of poets and critics who have felt that Byron ‘wanted faith’ in poetry. The chapters that follow aim to trace the most significant creative consequences of that want of conviction. Chapter 1 introduces Byron’s doubting temper and examines his early preference for self-reflexive literary forms, including literary satire, that might give expression to his early inclination to be in two minds about literature. Byron’s revisions and self-revisions are the subject of Chapter 2, which considers the compositional development of <i>Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage</i> in light of the creatively resourceful scepticism involved in literary revision; it argues that his doubts were vitally related to the restless experimentation that defined his career as a poet. Chapter 3 turns to Beppo, Don Juan, and the activity of entertaining doubt in light verse, offering a close stylistic analysis of Byron’s comic rhymes to show how his distrust of more serious forms of art was profitably realised as a matter of style.</p> <p>Over the course of his career, Byron’s scepticism of the ordinary preoccupations of poetry led him into a creative effort to expand what the medium could do. These experiments are the subject of Chapter 4. In the later cantos of the poem, Byron cultivated a style that was in some ways consciously unliterary, reflecting his openness to the influence of discursive and ambivalently literary forms including the essay. Chapter 5 turns to the English cantos of Don Juan, which Byron claimed to have scribbled in improvisatory style. It describes a poetry that makes an art of not being poetical—and raises questions about its relation to prose. Together these chapters are designed to show that Byron’s irresolved doubts had a profound and affirmative influence on his art.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Watson, EM Byron's doubts: a critical study of Byron's poetry, 1807-24 |
| title | Byron's doubts: a critical study of Byron's poetry, 1807-24 |
| title_full | Byron's doubts: a critical study of Byron's poetry, 1807-24 |
| title_fullStr | Byron's doubts: a critical study of Byron's poetry, 1807-24 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Byron's doubts: a critical study of Byron's poetry, 1807-24 |
| title_short | Byron's doubts: a critical study of Byron's poetry, 1807-24 |
| title_sort | byron s doubts a critical study of byron s poetry 1807 24 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT watsonem byronsdoubtsacriticalstudyofbyronspoetry180724 |